Ghost Squad
by M.E.S109
Summary: A squad of ODST's are deployed to Reach shortly after the invasion of the covenant. Their mission? Retrieve a tier 1 military asset. unbeknownst to the ODST's the asset is a squad of Spartan II's codenamed: Ghost Squad.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Rescue**

**Date: August 13th, 2552**

**Time: 26:00 hours**

**Planet: Reach**

**Location: ONI Tower Base**

**Mission: Recover Tier 1 Military Asset**

Lieutenant Greaves teeth rattled as he hurtled towards the ground at hundreds of kilometers an hour. His drop pod jerked and jumped, jostling him in his seat as it hit turbulence and dodged stray plasma shots.

He checked his descent, saw that he only had a few hundred kilometers to fall and engaged his reverse thrusters. He closed his eyes and grunted as his descent slowed from hundreds of kilometers to about twenty in under five seconds. His drop pod slammed, with tremendous force, into the black asphalt road below him which surrounded a small fountain.

He looked out of the thin window in front of him and saw five other drop pods slam into the dark, courtyard which was lit only by the light of the moon, scattering asphalt and concrete everywhere.

Greaves pressed the release buttons on the inside of his pod and the front of it exploded outwards. It cartwheeled across the courtyard and crashed through the window of a shop.

Greaves groaned and practically fell out of his seat. He righted himself, swayed and looked about him. He had landed on the south side of a large, war torn, courtyard surrounded on all sides by various shops with a large road leading out of it by its north side.

There was a small fountain in the centre of the courtyard that was surrounded by a large road and a smaller circle of dirt. The fountain had been shattered when a second drop pod, belonging to one of Greaves squad mates, had slammed into it.

Greaves removed his helmet, revealing a strong face with a square jaw, grey eyes, a short black beard and a black buzz cut. He turned around and pulled his SMG out of its holding spot in the pod. He checked it's ammo counter and flicked it off safe.

There was a loud bang and Greaves looked behind him to see the door of the drop pod in the fountain burst off outwards. A black ODST fell out of the pod and scrambled up onto its hands and knees.

Greaves scooped up his helmet and jogged over to it.

"Taylor." he said in his gruff voice, offering his hand to the figure.

Taylor ignored the hand got up. He removed his helmet, taking a few deep baths and fixed his brown eyes on Greaves.

"That was a good jump." he said as several more pod doors burst open about them.

"Yeah, we're lucky that ONI let us drop here, away from the main covenant force." Greaves replied.

"ON ME!" he shouted and the four other ODST's scattered around the courtyard jogged over to him. They removed their helmets, revealing two male faces and two female faces.

"Jones, Simon." Greaves said, motioning to the men with short blonde hair and no hair respectively.

"Sir!" they said in unison, crouching down and checking their weapons.

"How was your first jump?" Taylor asked, running his hand through his short brown hair and nodding towards Mary and Bright.

"Shaky." Bright replied, shaking her short, blonde haired head.

"Fine." Mary replied, the squad had quickly learned that she never spoke much, she had brown hair and a short buzz cut.

"So what's our next move? We gonna fight some covenant? Rescue some civies?" Bright said, the squad had quickly learned that she spoke to much.

"Keep it in check Bright!" Greaves said, motioning for everyone to gather around "All right this is the situation, our squad has been charged by ONI with the recovery of a tier one military asset, don't ask Bright because I don't know." he finished anticipating Bright's question before she could ask it.

"So where's this asset stored?" Simon asked.

Greaves used the muzzle of his SMG and drew a sideways capitol T in the dirt by the fountain. He indicated the left side of the sideways T, pointing towards the left end of the horizontal line.

"We're here," he said "and the asset is stored in a facility over here." he finished, indicating the top of T's vertical line.

Jones whistled.

"That's one hell of a walk Lieutenant." he said.

"It don't seem that long," Bright replied "I wonder what the asset is? Maybe its a bunch of new experimental weapons. Or some kind of mech warrior or-"

"That's enough Bright," Greaves commanded "all right people, helmets on and weapons loaded, lets move out... And keep it quiet!" he added as an after thought.

The six black clad ODST's moved silently though the rubble of the UNSC compound, their weapons at the ready. The sounds of people fighting and dying ahead of them kept them all on edge.

They reached the intersection of the T where the two lines intersected and stopped. They had been traveling down a long straight road with burn marks, craters and the occasional body scattered through out it for an hour and a half when it came to a sudden stop. At its end stood a large, square building made out of concrete that was badly damaged.

The area in front of it was littered with bodies. There were at least five UNSC marines lying out the front of the building. Three of them were on the ground surrounded by blood and burn marks while the other two were propped up against the building, also surrounded by blood and scorch marks.

Greaves made a few hand signs and the squad of ODST's began to creep forward. They made it to the door of the building and stacked up, three on each side, with Greaves and Taylor at the front of each line.

Greaves slowly pushed open the door of the building with his gun and entered. The interior was dark, dirty and blood stained and there were two more bodies on the floor. Greaves motioned towards them and Bright crouched down next to them, checking them for signs of life while Greaves and Taylor covered her.

She raised her head and shook it. Greaves nodded and moved to the far wall where there was a doorway without a door. He pressed his back against the wall next to the doorway and waited for the rest of the squad to enter.

Taylor pulled Jones and Simon aside and brought them to a doorway on the left wall where they stacked up while Bright and Mary joined Greaves by the open doorway.

Greaves nodded at Taylor and they each led their respective teams through the doorways. Greaves and his half of the squad entered through into a large and empty room with a badly damaged right wall and a lone marine lying dead, propped against the wall, with horrible burns covering most of his body. There was a large hole blown through the back wall and there were screams and the sounds of gunfire coming through it.

Taylor entered the room from a door in the left wall with the rest of the squad. Greaves saw Taylor shake his head and knew that he was thinking that it was all a senseless waste of life.

Greaves motioned towards the hole in the far wall and they stacked up in the same lines as when they entered the building. Taylor and Greaves nodded at one another and they vaulted the remains of the wall and landed in a large room with a massive hole blown in the back wall. Rubble and concrete chunks were scattered throughout the room and there were five UNSC marines cowering behind the remains of the far wall.

Greaves and Taylor both dived to the floor as a hail of blue plasma streamed towards them. Bright and Simon, whom had been behind them in the stack up lines, ducked back behind the wall.

Greaves and Taylor crawled up towards the marines and raised themselves into a crouch next to them. The middle marine looked at them with a relieved expression.

"Thank god you guys are here!" he yelled "we could really use the support!"

"What the hell happened here soldier?!" Greaves yelled as both Bright and Simon joined them "How did you get pinned down here?!"

"Sir! We were getting pushed back by the covenant and we retreated into this building just as the heavenly angles," the soldier motioned upwards "started a bombing run!"

"Who were those guys out the back?!" Bright asked, yelling over Greaves's shoulder "How did they die?! Did the bombing run get them?! Or was it-"

"That's enough private!" Greaves shouted, peeking over the remainder of the wall in front of him and spying three Grunts and two Elites. The three Grunts were firing mounted plasma canons towards them and Greaves ducked down as another hail of plasma was fired towards him.

"Hows the rest of the squad doing?!" Taylor asked.

"We're fine, a bit shaken maybe but he's..." the soldier motioned towards the far left marine sitting against the wall with a large whole blown through his side "Not going to make it."

Jones and Mary came running into the room and took cover by Taylor.

"You sit tight," Greaves said, squeezing the soldiers shoulder and turning to address his squad "all right this is the situation!" he said.

"We've got five bogeys, two Elites and three Grunts on mounted plasma canons. They're positioned on the top of a bridge that goes from one side of the road to the other and is linked by two buildings." he continued.

"So how do we get past that?" Simon yelled.

"You've got grenades haven't you?" Greaves asked, smiling under his helmet "As soon as you chuck a grenade at them Jones and I will move up the right side of the road and enter the buildings while Taylor and Mary mirror us up the left side of the road."

"What about me Lieu?" Bright asked, glancing over the wall.

"I need you to stay here and support these marines private." Greaves replied.

"Can do!" she replied.

"All right let's move!" Greaves shouted.

Simon slung his assault rifle, he was the only squad member who didn't carry an SMG, over his shoulder and pulled a grenade from his belt. He peeked over the wall, pulled the pin and through the grenade over the wall. The grenade landed with a bounce and a thunk in between the two elites.

They dived to the side as the grenade exploded. Two of the grunts were blown apart in an explosion of blue blood and guts while the third had managed to avoid the explosion all together.

Greaves and Jones vaulted the wall and sprinted up the right side of the road, entering the building that the bridge was connected to, while Taylor and Mary mirrored them up the left side of the road.

The grunt that had survived ran back to the middle plasma cannon, mounted it and began firing again, not noticing the four ODST's that had slipped by.

Greaves and Jones made their way up the inside of the building, cautiously checking every corridor and room for covenant forces. They travelled up two flights of stairs and emerged on the buildings third floor. They made their way towards the side of the building that faced the road and found the shattered door that lead to the bridge.

Jones and Greaves took up positions on either side of the door and Greaves used his radio to contact Taylor.

"You in position yet Taylor?" he asked, keeping his voice down in fear of being overheard.

"Yeah, we're in position," he replied "just say the word."

"Bright," Greaves said, changing frequencies "I need to know where these guys are, what can you see?"

They waited in silence for a few tense moments as Bright observed the bridge.

"There's one grunt up there giving us hell with his plasma canon and the two elites are standing on either side of him." She said.

"All right," Greaves said, changing frequencies again "we go on three. One, two, THREE!"

Greaves and Jones charged onto the bridge and both brought their guns to bear on the blue elite closest to them. They squeezed their triggers in unison and sent ninety-six bullets into the elites chest.

The elites shield exploded in a shower of bright blue shards before its chest followed suit and disappeared in a mist of purple blood. The second elite met a similar end and Bright, not wanting to miss out on the action popped her head up and fired off five quick shots towards the grunt, one of which found its mark and felled the small orange alien.

Taylor and Mary jogged over to the center of the bridge, as did Greaves and Jones, reloading their weapons once they got there. Greaves took some time to look around a little. The bridge was made out of a long, flat steel floor with a domed flexi glass roof that was shattered where the three plasma canons were standing.

The road beneath them was littered with crashed vehicles and rubble from buildings and about a hundred and fifty meters down the road was a T-intersection.

The group of ODST's were congratulating each other in the center of the bridge when a Covenant Wraith glided around the T intersection, followed by a group of six Brutes. One of the Brutes fired a Spiker at the ODST's, spraying golden-brown spikes towards him while the Wraith fired a massive plasma shot towards them.

"Shit!" Greaves yelled.

He dived back the way he had come just as the huge ball of plasma slammed into the bridge. There was a tremendous crash and the sound of breaking glass and sizzling metal filled Greaves ears as shards of glass cascaded over his head and shoulders.

Greaves blinked twice, slowly and shook his head to clear it. He raised himself up and almost slipped off of the bridge which was now blown in two with both halves hanging downwards at a precarious angle.

Greaves blinked again and looked to his left where he saw Mary leaning against the angled floor of the bridge. He looked down at her side and was shocked to see a large brown spike lodged in the left side of her stomach.

He slowly raised himself up and called out to her.

"Mary!" he said in a hushed but urgent voice.

He swore when she didn't respond and began to slowly make his way towards her.

"Hey Mary! Come on!" He said.

Mary stirred and lifted her hands to her cracked visor. The Wraith fired another shot, this time aiming for somewhere behind Greaves. The impact shook the bridge and caused a few shards of glass to slide to ground below.

The bridge was shook a second time as the Wraith fired another shot and Mary began to slide slowly down the bridge, gaining speed as she did so.

"No!" Greaves yelled as he scrambled after her.

He followed her as she slid down the bridge, made a grab for her outstretched hand and missed. She slid off of the broken edge of the bridge and tumbled five meters to ground below where she landed with a sickening thud behind a large truck.

"Dammit!" Greaves yelled, pulling himself back up the bridge and sprinting back into the building.

"Taylor, Bright!" Greaves said, switching to the squad frequency "Regroup at the burnt out truck beneath the bridge. Now!"

He turned his radio off and made his way down to the street level. He looked out onto the street and made sure that none of the Covenant were advancing before running, in a crouched position, over towards the truck.

He arrived at the same time as Taylor and Jones and they all looked down at the broken and bloodied body before them. Mary's helmet had come loose as she had fallen and there was a massive gash across her forehead. Her head was lying in a pool of red blood, which had originated from the gash in her had and there was a second pool of blood trickling out of her stomach.

"Ahh, fuck." Taylor said, turning away from the body.

Simon and Bright came jogging towards them.

"Hey guys!" Bright said, not noticing Mary's body "I saw that Wraith bullet and thought you guys were done for. Me and Simon were all ready to- "

She stopped as she saw Mary's broken body lying on the ground before them and was silent, for once in her life.

"I... Wh... But..." she stuttered.

"Hey, Bright, look at me," Greaves said, gaining her attention "look we can't stay here, we have to move. Come on." he said grabbing her shoulder and leading the squad to a building on the left side of the road.

They sheltered inside the building and took stock of their situation. They were all silent, even Bright. They had barely known Mary and had hardly ever talked to her but her death had hit them hard nonetheless. She was like the silent guardian, the warrior who could take anything and just keep going. But now she was dead. They pushed their doubts and their grief to the back of their minds and soldiered on. They had all lost squad mates before and they knew that nothing good would come from dwelling on it.

"Whats out next move Liuetenant?" Taylor asked checking his gun.

"We need to find a way around those Covenant at the end of the road." Greaves replied, leaning back against one of the walls.

"Simon and Bright," he continued "you two take point and scout ahead, look for anything you can that will help us neutralize those Covenant."

The two soldiers gave Greaves a quick salute before trudging out of the room.

"What about us sir?" Jones asked, from his position by the front door.

"We," Greaves said, motioning towards the three remaining ODST's "are going to scout out the top floors and see if we can get a good vantage point on those Brutes."

Greaves peeked over the top of the window sill and observed the three Brutes three stories below him. He watched as they worked together to move a car down the road. They pushed it down the road, towards the bridge and positioned it a few meters in front of the Wraith.

"_This would be so much easier if we had those marines._" he thought.

Bright had told them all, after finding her voice again, that two of the marines had been killed by the grunt after Simon had thrown the grenade, one more had been seriously injured and the wounded member had died. The last able bodied marine had stayed behind to care for his injured squad mate.

"Looks like they're making a barricade." Greaves muttered.

"With cars and rubble?" Taylor said, sitting down next to Greaves "They must be pretty confident that they've won if they're not using plasma tech."

"Yeah, that or they're just killing time."

Greaves, Taylor and Jones had spent thirty minutes traveling through the large concrete complex that ran up the left side of the road. They had made their way up three flights of stairs and were now sitting on the third floor at the corner of the T-intersection,

"Jones," Greaves said, speaking into his radio "report."

"Sir," came Jones's voice, crackling over the static of the radio "I've got myself a good vantage point opposite you, I can see three Brutes from my position."

Greaves scanned the buildings opposite him and spotted Jones, who gave him a small wave, in one of the windows overlooking the T intersection.

"Bright, Simon, found anything that might help us smoke these monkeys?" Greaves asked, speaking into his helmet radio again.

"Sure did Lieutenant," said Bright "about 10 meters behind the Wraith, on the right corner of the T-intersection there's a crashed Rocket hog. Can you believe that?! A Rocket hog, I mean talk about good luck."

Greaves rotated his gaze until he located Bright and Simon. They were crouching down behind a damaged Rocket hog that was propped up on two wheels and leaning against a building. Bright stood up and waved at Greaves and Simon grabbed her by her back and pulled her behind the Rocket hog as a Brute trudged past them.

"Careful Bright!" Greaves hissed "The last thing I need is for you two to get spotted."

"Sorry Liue," Bright chuckled "guess I got a bit carried away."

"Yeah no kidding." Simon said, joining the conversation.

"Cut the chatter," Greaves replied "is the turret operational."

"Uhh," said Simon as he quietly investigated the turret "it can be if you give me a minute."

"You've got thirty seconds," Greaves said "after that get ready to fire on my signal."

"You done yet?" Bright asked for the third time.

"I told you before," Simon replied, in a hushed voice "you can't rush this kind of stuff. One wrong move and the firing mechanism will fry or it'll trigger the explosives stored in the tube."

"Okay, okay, I get it," Bright said "rushing equals death."

Simon climbed onto the back of the Rocket hog amd pried a damaged panel off of the stem of the turret and took a look inside it. Almost all of the wires and cables inside of it were fried and burnt. Simon removed a pair of pliers and a set of specially, sharpened scissors. He followed the wires and cables down until he reached an area where they were no longer burnt.

He cut the burnt sections of the wires and cables out and removed them from the stem. He then peeled back the plastic coverings on them, revealing the copper wires beneath them and pulled a small, rectangular wire case from the small of his back.

"Hey, psst!" Bright hissed, leaning away from the side of the hog "We go three Brutes incoming."

Simon rushed to stuff his pliers back into his belt and dropped them in his hurry.

"Shit!" he swore in a quiet voice.

"Forget them!" Bright whispered in an urgent voice "Just get ack here before you're spotted."

Simon lowered himself, quickly and quietly, off of the back of the hog. He crouched down next to Bright and the two of them held their breath as the heavy-set Brutes passed by.

The Brutes lumbered by the Rocket hog, passing within inches of it before turning around and back towards the Wraith.

Simon and Bright breathed out in relief.

"Whew that was a close one," Bright said "when those Brutes came around the Wraith I thought that they would spot you for sure."

"Hey Bright anyone ever tell you that you talk to much?" Simon asked "Are they coming back?"

Bright peeked around the corner of the Rocket hog. She turned back to Simon and gave him the thumbs up. He clambered back up onto the hogs turret platform and retrieved his pliers.

He found his wire case where he had left it. He flicked it open and selected a few lengths of categorized wires from within. He twisted the wires into the freshly cut wires and cables of the turrets stem, reconnecting the ones that had been damaged by plasma.

"You nearly done Corporal?" Greaves asked.

"Just about sir." Simon replied, twisting the last two segments of wire together.

"Done." he said, to both Greaves and Bright.

"Good," Greaves replied "Now wait for me and Taylor to fire, we'll target the three Brutes in our side and Jones and Bright will target the three Brutes on patrol. Simon, as soon as we open fire I want you to fire the Rocket hogs turret at the Wraith."

"Yes sir!" Simon replied, settling himself into an awkward half stand, half crouch so that he could aim the slanted Rocket hog.

"Right then," Greaves said "everyone acquire your targets, we shoot on my go."

Bright readied her SMG and peered around the corner of the hog, she leveled her guns sights on one of the Brutes, that had circled the Wraith and we're heading back around towards the hog.

"Ready." she said at the same one as Jones.

"NOW!" Greaves yelled.

He and Taylor fired their guns at the three Brutes below them. One of the Brutes was hit four times in the chest, spraying purple blood every where and another Brute was hit twice in arm and once in the neck, both of them dropped to ground with purple blood trickling out of their wounds. The other Brute disappeared into the building below them.

Simon pulled the trigger of the turret and sent six small rockets racing towards the back of the Wraith. Each one found its mark and the Wraith exploded in a brilliant array of purple fire and smoking wreckage. The explosion knocked the three patrolling Brutes on its left side into the wall of the building next to them.

Simon hopped off of the turret and joined Bright as she advanced towards the shell shocked Brutes. She fired off five quick shots and one of the Brutes fell back with three bullet holes in its chest. Simon slung his assault rifle off of his shoulder and unleashed half the clip into a second Brutes chest, turning it into a purple pulp.

The third Brute had been killed by the initial explosion and was missing half of its torso.

"Shit!" Bright yelled as a hail of spikes narrowly missed her body.

Bright and Simon quickly took cover behind a smoking pile of purple wreckage as the last remaining Brute fired at them from inside Greaves and Taylor's building.

"He's mine." said Jones.

Jones stood up and aimed his gun at the Brute. He took a few a seconds to make sure that he was on target before pulling the trigger twice. Six bullets whistled out of the third story window and towards the Brute. Three of them missed, slamming into the furniture of the store front while the other three hit the Brute.

The Brute was hit twice in the chest and once in the neck, it fell to its knees, gurgled and collapsed sideways.

"Thanks Jones!" Simon called out, standing up and rolling his shoulders.

"Regroup on Simon and Bright." Greaves said, transmitting his voice to all of their headsets.

Five minutes later the entire squad was assembled in a circle by the Rocket Hog.

"You two," Greaves said, motioning towards Simon and Bright "get this thing on its wheels and fix it up." he finished, indicating the Rocket hog with his head.

"Taylor, you take Jones and scout ahead try and find another vehicle we can use, I'm going to sift through this wreckage for anything useful.

"Come on Bright!" Simon grunted, gritting his teeth and pushing the underside of the Rocket hog "Put your back into it!"

"Not. That. Easy!" Bright replied, also gritting her teeth.

They gave the hog one final push. It slid sideways on its two grounded wheels before falling to the ground and landing on all four wheels. Simon jumped into the drivers seat and popped the bottom panel off of the steering column. He pulled out his pliers, scissors and wire box and set to work on the steering columns inner workings.

Bright leaned over to him and muttered a question.

"Simon says its gonna take at least ten minutes to fix this." she called out to Greaves.

"Make it five!" Greaves called back.

"Got it!" Simon yelled.

He pressed the ignition button and the Rocket hog sputtered to life just as Jones and Taylor came into the T-intersection, driving a damaged Warthog.

"Good job squad!" Greaves called "Pick a hog and let's get going!"

Greaves jumped into the passenger seat of the Rocket hog as Bright climbed up onto the turret. Simon reversed the hog out onto the road and threw it into drive.

"Wanna race?" Jones asked, smiling under his helmet from the turret position as Taylor revved the second Warthog's engine.

The two Warthogs drove forwards and turned left at the T-intersection. They sped up the road, swerving around crashed cars and craters and drifting around the few small bends in the road.

The road rose up at a sharp angle and the two Warthogs came to a breaking halt at the top of the rise. They surveyed the scene below them with shocked and worried expressions.

The road continued in a straight line, passing through two smoking walls, which were once gates and continued on into a large, semi circular compound which, if viewed from a Birdseye view, would look like a C that had been rotated ninety degrees to the right. There was a wide catwalk running around the the interior length of the compound about four meters off of the ground which over looked a large courtyard. There was a large downwards leading ramp set in the center of the compounds ninety-degree C shape.

At the either end of the compounds C lines, near the ruined gate, were two tall, solid concrete watch towers. There was a pile of rubble in the center of the courtyard and all around the courtyard bullets were flying. A few squads of brave marines had managed to make it onto the catwalk, which was lined with regular protrusions for cover and were desperately trying to stave off the massive force of attacking Covenant. There must have been at least a hundred Elites and even more Grunts advancing towards the marines.

"We need to get inside that compound," Greaves said, pointing towards a large reinforced loading door set in the center of the catwalk "thats were this asset of ours is stored."

"Any ideas on how to get through all of that?" Jones asked, indicating the large force of Elites, Grunts and now Brutes as well.

"We've got the element of surprise," Taylor said "I reckon we could drive over to that ramp on the left there," he indicated a thin metal ramp that led up to the catwalk "hop out and run up it before the Covenant get a bead on us."

"That's one hell of a chance." Jones said, studying the layout of the area below.

"Well at least they've got snipers in those towers." Simon said, pointing towards a marine that had just taken a shot from one of the towers "that should give us some cover."

"All right, let's do this." Greaves said.

"Woooo!" Bright yelled as they accelerated down the hill.

They reached the bottom of the hill, passed a group of three Grunts and drove on towards the gates. Bright ducked as a bolt of plasma seared over her head and returned in kind. She pulled the trigger of the turret and sent six rockets flying in the direction of her attacker.

They pushed on, speeding past dozens of Covenant troops and taking a few glancing shots to the chassis of their Warthogs. Greaves fired a few shots, which bounced off of an Elites shield, from his position in the passenger seat.

Simon swerved to avoid a slow going Ghost and yelled as a plasma grenade landed on the road in front of him. It exploded and sent the Warthog head first into the ruins of the gate. Taylor had swerved to avoid the grenade and had ended up flipping his Warthog.

Greaves leaped out of the passenger seat, closely followed by Bright and Simon.

"Move it! Quadruple time!" he screamed as Taylor and Jones pulled themselves from the wreckage of their Warthog.

The squad sprinted through the destroyed gate, hearts pounding in their ears as plasma, bullets and everything in between whizzed by their faces. They sprinted into the courtyard and headed for the left ramp as a marine stationed there yelled at them.

"Hey!" he yelled "Over here!" he ducked behind the protrusion next to him as a hail of plasma slammed into it.

The squad sprinted up the ramp, pumping their legs as hard as they could. Greaves skidded to a halt behind the large protrusion, followed closely by Simon, Taylor and Bright. He looked back towards the ramp just in time to see a Brute, whom had moved behind them, fire his Spiker at Jones.

The Brute didn't know how to fire in short controlled bursts and he emptied his clip in Jones's direction. Nine spikes slammed into Jones's back, slicing through his armor and sliding into his flesh. Jones uttered a short cry, stumbled once and fell face first onto the surface of the ramp. He didn't move.

Greaves and Simon fired at the Brute, dropping him like a stone while Bright ran, in a crouched position as Taylor covered her, and retrieved Jones's body. She dragged him back behind the safety of the large protrusion.

She checked his pulse and slumped her shoulders.

"He's gone..." she said in a quiet voice.

"Dammit!" Greaves said.

He straightened up, forcing Jones's death out of his mind.

"Come on," he said "almost there."

Taylor gripped Brights shoulder, squeezed it once and walked off after Greaves. The squad darted between the protrusions, waiting for breaks in the enemies fire and slowly making their way towards the large reinforced door.

Greaves reached the protrusion that overlooked the door and saw that the control pad next to it was fried. The area in front of the door was a large square platform, about three times the length and width of the walkway and there were three protective protrusions rising out of the side that faced the courtyard.

"Simon!" he yelled "Get up here!"

"Here sir!" Simon said, jogging up from his position at the rear of the squad.

"I need that door opened now! Well cover you." Greaves yelled.

Greaves, Bright and Taylor ran out onto the platform and took cover behind the protrusions while Simon crouched down by the keypad and pulled a dead marine off of it.

"Oh, that's encouraging." he said, as the body fell to the ground with a thump.

He got his tools out, popped the panel off and set to work on the wires.

Greaves leaned out from behind the protrusion and noticed, for the first time, that the ramp underneath the platform was barricaded and filled with at least eight marines. He out the thought out of his mind and fired off six shots at a blue Elite that was hiding behind a chunk of rubble. Three of his shots hit the Elite and bounced off of his shimmering blue shield while the others thunked harmlessly into the ground.

The Elite popped out for behind the rubble and fired a stream of blue plasma at Greaves. Greaves ducked his head behind the protrusion and swore. He hoped Bright and Taylor were having better luck.

"Shit!" Bright yelled as she missed her target again.

She glanced out from behind her cover and saw the maroon colored Elite that she had been firing at run from his original cover, a burnt out Warthog, to a pile of rubble. She reloaded her SMG and took aim but was forced to take cover again as squad of five jackals with shields came marching through the ruined gates. They opened fire at her and she cowered behind the protrusion.

The hail of green plasma ceased for a moment and Bright looked out in time to see a marine from the left watch tower fire a rocket at the tightly grouped Jackals. The rocket landed in the middle of the Jackals and blew them apart in an explosion of yellow flames and purple blood.

Bright smiled and pointed her gun at her original target, he was busy attacking some marines on the right walkway. She pulled the trigger twice and was surprised to see three of her shots make contact.

"_Someone must have taken down his shields._" she thought.

She smiled and glanced over a Taylor.

Taylor fired his SMG and swing it between the four Grunts. Their small orange chests exploded in spurts of bright blue blood and they dropped to the ground, dead. He sat down behind the protrusion, reloaded his weapon and tossed an armed grenade over his shoulder. The grenade exploded near two blue Elites and sent them both running for cover.

"Hurry it up Simon!" he yelled.

"Got it!" Simon yelled, scrambling away from the door as it slowly opened.

"Finally," Greaves muttered "everybody in! Simon, close the door!"

Simon scrambled inside the door and took cover behind closed section. Greaves and Taylor followed him, firing their weapons form the hip. They made it inside the door and looked back to see Bright still shooting.

"Hurry it up private!" Taylor shouted.

Bright glanced over her shoulder and nodded. She fired a few more shots off and turned around. She sprinted towards the door as a group of Brutes for their Spikers at her. She was able to dodge the first hail of spikes but the second lot of spikes slammed into her back. She fell forward, lay still for a moment and slowly began to crawl forwards.

"Fuck!" Greaves yelled "Cover me!"

Taylor and Simon nodded and began firing out towards the Brute squad. Greaves ran out onto the platform, dodging a deadly hail of golden-brown spikes. He grabbed Bright under one of her arms and dragged her back into the compound just as the door closed.

The sounds of gunfire and explosions were instantly muffled as the large loading bay door closed. Greaves dragged Bright over to the far right wall and crouched down next to her. He gripped her hand and squeezed it.

"Come on Bright!" he said "I'm not going to lose another team mate today!"

He straightened up and walked over to Taylor.

"Do what you can for her." he said.

Taylor nodded and walked over to Bright. He removed the cans of Biofoam that she, as the squads medic, kept strapped to the small of her back.

"This is going to hurt." he said, gripping one of the spikes.

He pulled the spike out as quickly as he could and grimaced as Bright screamed.

"Just four more." he said in a grim voice.

"Come on, lets find the command center," Greaves said to Simon "we don't need to see this."

Greaves led Simon down the hallway while Taylor removed the last few spikes. He lay them by his side, picked up a can of Biofoam and inserted the nozzle into one of Brights numerous wounds. He pressed the spray button and Bright groaned as a thick white foam entered her wound, sealing it from the outside world. He repeated the process four more times, emptying two cans of Biofoam.

When he was done he propped Bright up against the walls and motioned towards the spikes.

"You're lucky to be alive." he said, letting out a small chuckle.

"They'll... They'll make, good souvenirs." Bright said, smiling weakly.

"Is there anything that can stop you from talking?" Taylor replied, laughing as he did so.

"Nothing human nor alien will stop me from talking." Bright muttered.

"We found the command center," Greaves said trudging back towards Taylor and Bright "good to see you alive private. Come on, we have to move. We saw a group of Brutes on the security cams while we were there."

"And they looked pissed!" Simon said.

Taylor hoisted Bright up, placed an arm around her waist and helped her walk down the corridor. Greaves led the way, checking each corner before moving forwards. They came to a wide, straight corridor and Greaves led them down it, while Simon stayed at the end of it and kept a lookout for any Covenant forces.

Greaves punched a code into the panel by the door and waited for it to slide open. Taylor entered with Bright and Greaves followed.

"Brutes!" Simon yelled, from his position at the end of the corridor.

He fired his assault rifle towards the incoming Brutes and ran down the corridor as hey returned fire.

"Run Simon!" Bright yelled, from her position by Taylor as a Brute skidded around the corner of the corridor.

The Brute raised his Spiker and fired, but Greaves was quicker and had already sent three shots towards the Brute. The bullets struck it in the stomach just as it pulled the trigger. It jerked it's arm downwards, firing as it did so, as three lead bullets buried themselves in its stomach. One of the stray bullets struck Simon in the back of his calf.

Simon yelled in pain as the spike pierced his left calf and buried itself, with it's ends sticking out of the front of his shin and the back of his calf.

He hopped forwards on his right foot four times before lunging towards the door. He landed safely on the other side of the door as Greaves hit the button to close it and shot the panel.

The four ODST's waited in silence, listening for any noises outside the door. After five minutes of silence Greaves gave the all clear and crouched down next to Simon.

"You all right?" he asked.

Simon pulled his helmet off and nodded, gritting his teeth.

"I should probably leave this in," he said, motioning towards the spike "it's pierced the bone and it's the only thing keeping the blood in."

Greaves nodded and stood up. The command center was a thin, rectangular room with a door set in both of it's shorter walls. Running along the left wall, which was also one of the long walls, was a row of computers and electronic readouts. Behind all of the computers were large, bullet proof windows with steel shutters pulled over them.

Taylor sat Bright down and asked her a few questions, mainly to keep her morale up. They all murmured amongst themselves for a few minutes and came a sudden abrupt stop as something heavy thumped against the door.

_BANG! _It went.

"Shit!" Greaves swore "Simon, open that door," he ordered pointing at the far door "Taylor, get Bright on her feet."

_BANG!... BANG!_

A growl sounded from the other side of the door as Simon punched in the correct code for the far door. It slid open and Greaves aimed his SMG at the closed door as Taylor helped Bright limp through the open one before coming back and helping Simon through the door as well.

"All clear!" he yelled from the next room.

Greaves spun on the spot and jogged through the door. Taylor closed the door and stacked a few heavy, metal boxes, which he had found lying next to the door. This new room ran parallel, sharing the windowed wall, to the command center. It was slightly wider though it still retained a rectangular shape.

The wall opposite the one with the shuttered windows was lined by six large tubes, covered in metal shutters. Taylor propped Bright up against the wall with the windows and sat down next to her. He pulled out a pack of cards, pulled his helmet off and started to deal the cards out between them.

Simon had limped over to a small, raised panel next to the tubes by the far wall and was busy tapping away at it while Greaves had removed his own helmet and sat back against the base of one of the tubes.

They had been sitting in silence for about ten minutes when the metal panels on the tubes retracted, revealing their gleaming white interiors.

"Holy shit!" Simon exclaimed.

"Language langu-" Bright began, stopping as she saw the tubes "Bullshit!" she breathed.

Greaves said nothing, he just stared at the tubes and their armored contents.

"They're Spartans," he whispered "they're fucking Spartans!" he yelled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Rude Awakening**

**Date: August 14th 2552**

Time: 02:00 hours

**Planet: Reach**

**Location: ONI Tower Base, command center**

**Mission: Secure the area**

The front section of the cryogenics tube slid upwards with both a mechanical whirr and a loud hiss.

Specter leaned forwards, groaned and fell towards the floor. He tumbled out of the cold tube and landed on his hands and knees on the ground below. He tore off his MARK 5 UA/HUL helmet, revealing a young face with bright blue eyes and short blonde hair, tossed it aside and threw up.

A second spartan, larger then the others stepped out of his tube, which was on Specters right and swayed. He had tan colored armor with a secondary coral tint. He pulled his GRENADIER UA/FC helmet off and leaned against the tube, taking deep breaths as he did so.

"What's the matter Specter?" asked a third spartan, he had rust colored armor with a secondary steel tint "Ca-" he tore off his GRENADIER helmet and threw up in his tube, which was on the far left.

"Huh, like your any better Phantom." Specter replied, sitting with his back against his tube.

Three more Spartans emerged from their test tubes, two female and one male. The male removed his HAZOP helmet, revealing a young face with short black hair.

"On your feet Spartans!" he commanded, motioning towards Specter and Phantom whom had fallen over.

"Come on Spirit," Specter said, scrambling to his feet "it hasn't even been five minutes."

"We've been asleep for two months!" said one of the females, she had brown colored armor with a secondary sage tint "And you're already complaining for a rest."

"You know your just encouraging them Spook?" said the second female, she had sage colored armor with a secondary aqua tint.

"Cut the chatter!" Spirit ordered, brushing some ice off of his GUNGNIR shoulder pads and gesturing towards the ODST's "We have visitors."

The six Spartans ceased their bickering and turned towards the four, rather small looking, ODST's.

"Goddam I forgot how big we are!" Specter exclaimed taking a step back to create some room for the small figures.

"Your one to talk," said Entity, the Spartan with the tan colored armor "look at me!"

Entity spread his arms, showing off his enormous size and accidentally knocking Spook's shoulder in the process. He rolled his GUNGNIR clad shoulders, bent his GRENADIER clad knees and sat down on the edge of his tube. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his massive COLLAR/GRENADIER chest armor.

"It's a bit cramped in here," Poltergeist said, she was the one with sage colored armor "I can barely move my arms."

"You," Spirit said, taking command of the conversation "identify yourself."

"Sir!" Greaves said, snapping a quick salute "Lieutenant Greaves of the third ODST platoon!"

"Where are we?" Phantom asked, pulling a grenade out of his TACTICAL/RECON chest armor and inspecting it.

"Your in an ONI research facility." Greaves replied.

"Tower Base?" Specter asked, fiddling with his UA/MULTI-THREAT shoulder pads, his armor's primary color was steel and it's secondary color was maroon.

"That's the one." Greaves said.

"What's the situation?" Spirit asked.

"Tower Base has been compromised sir," Greaves said, beginning a recount of the events that lead up to the Spartans unfreezing "Then we barricaded the door." he finished, gesturing towards the blocked door at the end of the command center.

"Right," Spirit said "Spook, get on that door and find us a way out of here. Polt," he continued, using Poltergeists nickname "they've got injured, do what you can for them. Everyone else make some room."

Spook walked over to the door and effortlessly moved the boxes, which had been quite heavy for Taylor, aside. She crouched down next to the panel, pulled out a strange looking tool and set to work.

Poltergeist had walked over to Bright, she had exchanged a few jokes with her before examining her wounds.

"Excuse me sir," Greaves said, in an uncertain voice "do you mind if I ask a question.

"Fire away." Specter replied.

"I thought Spartan II's wore green armor."

Entity removed his helmet, revealing a strong kind face with brown hair.

"How'd you know we were Spartan II's?" he asked.

"I've worked along side Spartan III's before," Greaves said, recalling a previous battle "and they're all a lot shorter then you guys."

"Sure are." said Phantom, raising his helmet less head.

Phantom was South African, he had light brown colored skin, a bald head and dark brown eyes.

"The ONI ship that was dropping us off was attacked by a covenant cruiser," Specter said, pulling a grenade form his HP/HALO chest armor and tossing it between his hands "we got stuck on one of the lower decks and our armor was badly damaged by a breached chemical pipe."

"So when we got to Reach Halsey had six shining new armor sets made up for us." Entity said, finishing Specter's short story.

"But don't be fooled," Spook said from her position by the door "these suits aren't like that cheap stuff they give to Spartan III's. These are fully functioning mark five Mjolnir suits... Got it!" she finished, opening the door and stepping through to the next room.

Specter, whom was the closest Spartan to the door, followed Spook through to the next room. He raised his eyebrows in surprise as he entered.

"Wow," he said, looking around the thin room "they really don't like computers."

Every single one of the consoles and electronic devices running along the left wall had been smashed and strewn about the room by the enraged brutes.

"Looks like one of them was injured." Spook said, crouching down next to a purple blood stain.

Spirit walked through into the room, fitting his HAZOP helmet over his head as he did so, his armors primary color was teal and it's secondary color was aqua. He was wearing a TACTICAL/LRP chest piece and FJ/PARA knee guards.

"Phantom," he said, gesturing to the rust colored Spartan that had entered behind him "your on clean up duty. Scour the compound and find those Brutes, we don't need them sneaking up behind us."

"Sir!" Phantom nodded his head, rolled his HAZOP clad shoulder guards and exited through the far door, which had been torn from its hinges by the Brutes, pulling his helmet on as he went.

He loaded his weapon, which he had retrieved from his cryogenics pod, as he went.

"Specter and Greaves, your on point," Spirit continued "find us a way out. Entity you bring up the rear while Spook and Polt assist the wounded."

Polt, whom had heard the whole conversation over her radio, scooped Bright up, carrying her in both arms. Poltergeist wore an OPERATOR helmet to assist her medical activities. She wore a DEFAULT chest piece with FJ/PARA shoulder guards and GUNGNIR knee guards.

Simon dismissed Spook's offer of help, Poltergeist had used her tools to saw off the ends of the spike and she had also given him a few painkillers. He walked through and joined the Spartans in the next room.

Spook inclined her AIR ASSAULT UA/CNM clad head towards Polt. Spook wore a TACTICAL/LRP chest piece, where she stored her equipment, DEFAULT knee guards and HAZOP shoulder pads.

Spook, Polt, Taylor and Bright joined the rest of the Spartan's, pulling their helmets on as well. They arranged themselves in the formation that Spirit had described and set off through the compound.

Specter pulled his DMR from his back, checked its ammo, put his helmet on and stalked silently through the shattered door, followed closely by Greaves. The rest of group waited a few seconds before following them.

Specter made his way silently through the compounds deserted corridors, alert for the slightest sound or movement. He was like a ghost, flitting through the empty corridors and leaving no evidence of his passing save for an occasional puff of dust. Greaves on the other hand was like an elephant stomping through a forest. His footsteps rang out, loud and heavy on the metal floor and listening to his heavy breaths was like listening to a hurricane.

"_Could he be any louder?" _Specter thought, sweeping his DMR across the room in front of him.

He lowered his weapon, only slightly and made his way through the room, passing through a door at the other end. He turned left and walked twenty meters down the corridor, keeping close to the right wall. He reached a bend in the corridor, peeked around it and continued on.

After thirty minutes of walking they arrived at the loading door through which Greaves and his squad had entered.

"Spook, open that door." Spirit commanded.

"On it!" Spook replied, walking over to the panel on the left of the door.

Specter and Spirit took up kneeling positions by the right side of the door, aiming their guns, an assault rifle and a DMR respectively, at the door while Entity guarded their rear. Poltergeist stood by Entity, still holding Bright.

Spook fiddled with the internal workings for a few seconds and the large door began to slide to the left, revealing the war torn courtyard beyond it.

The sudden noise of the firefight in the courtyard was deafening. Specter fired off a few rounds from his DMR, using his superior eyesight to fell two grunts that were hiding in the middle of the courtyard.

Spirit gave the all clear.

"Go, go, go!" he yelled.

Specter sprinted out onto the square platform, followed closely by Spirit and Spook. They ran to the front of the platform and took cover behind the three separate protrusions that were spaced evenly along it's front railing. Spook, whom had taken cover by the far left protrusion, pulled a DMR off of her back and fired at a group of five approaching Grunts, killing three of them.

Specter had taken cover by the far right protrusion. He leaned out to the right, leveled his sights on a blue Elite that was darting from cover to cover in the middle of the rubble strewn courtyard and pulled the trigger five times. Four of the bullets hit the Elite in the upper chest, staggering him and shattering his protective shield while the fifth bullet lodged itself in between his eyes in a spray of purple blood. All of this was accomplished in under five seconds.

He pulled his head back behind the protrusion and turned to face Spirit.

"There are a lot of split mouths out there!" he shouted above the noise, he had spotted at least three squads of Elite's advancing through the damaged gate.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan." Spirit replied "I'm just waiting on the others."

He didn't have to wait long. About ten seconds after their conversation Poltergeist sprinted out onto the platform and deposited Bright behind the middle protrusion, crouching down next to her. Polt was closely followed by Entity whom took cover next to Spook.

"All right," Spirit began, switching his helmets radio to the squad frequency "heres the objective, clear the area and re establish contact with ONI high command."

"And here I thought it was going to be something difficult." Entity said, pointing his assault rifle at two careless Jackles and obliterating their chests in an explosion of purple blood.

"Specter," Spirit began "I need you to head up to the right watch tower and lay down some covering fire with that Sniper of yours."

"Yes sir!" Specter replied, killing three Grunts with some handy rifle work and setting off towards the right watchtower.

"Poltergeist, you head round the cat walk and do what you can for the injured marines," Spirit continued, holding his hand up as Poltergeist began to protest "it's where your talents are most needed. Most of the injured here won't survive the fight without medical attention."

"Fine." she replied, in a resigned tone, as she set off for the left catwalk.

"Entity, as soon as you hear Specter fire I want you and Spook to get down to the courtyard and clear it of hostiles."

"Sir!" Entity and Spook replied at the same time.

"What about us?" Greaves asked.

"I need you and your squad to hold this door until Phantom arrives." Spirit replied.

Greaves and Taylor took cover behind the right protrusion, previously occupied by Specter, while Simon replaced Poltergeists position by Bright.

Specter dashed between the protrusions with incredible speed, avoiding a hail of blue plasma fired by a blue clad Elite.

"_Cheeky bastard._" he thought, resolving to shoot the offender once he was in the tower.

He darted from cover to cover until he was hiding behind the protrusion next to the ramp that led down from the catwalk and into the courtyard below. There was a second ramp, leading up from the catwalk, next to the first that led up to the watch tower.

Specter waited for a break in the enemies fire and, once he heard one, sprinted out from behind the protrusion and up the ramp. He ran towards the steel door, which was ajar, at the base of the tower, holding his DMR in one hand. He slammed his shoulder into the door and burst through into the small room beyond.

He quickly shut the door behind him and pushed a row of lockers, with apparent ease, in front of it. He turned around and headed for a set of stairs at the back of the room. He followed the stairs to the top of the building, entering the top room through a trapdoor which was located at the top of a short ladder.

He emerged in a small, concrete, bunker like room. It was square in shape, had four slits along its walls which counted for windows and contained the bloodied bodies of four marines.

Specter walked over to the left wall, the one facing the courtyard. He pulled a dead marine, whom had three spikes lodged firmly in the center of his chest, away from the middle of the wall.

Specter removed his Sniper Rifle from his back and leaned it against the low wall in front of him. He picked up his DMR and placed it against his back, waiting for it to _thunk _magnetically into place.

He gripped the handle of the Sniper Rifle with his right hand and placed his left hand under the barrel. He brought the scope up to his right eye and examined the battlefield below.

He saw Spirit and the ODST's firing at a group of blue Elites, hiding in the middle of the courtyard, from their positions on the upper platform. He lowered his gaze and looked at the ramp below the platform, groaning as he did so.

"Wow, someone is going to have a hard time cleaning that up." he muttered, observing the group of eight slaughtered and dismembered marines lying within it. "Someone must have lobbed a grenade in there." he mused.

He switched his gaze to the covenant occupied side of the courtyard. He quickly spied four squads of four blue Elites, each one led by a fifth maroon Elite.

Specter took three deep breaths, leveled his sights on the nearest maroon Elite's head, whom was taking cover with his squad behind the destroyed gate and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud crack as the bullet was propelled out of the barrel. It sped across the courtyard, leaving a white streak behind it as it went. It crossed the courtyard in under a second and slammed into the side of maroon colored Elites head. It shattered it's shields and blew through the Elites head in an explosion of purple blood and brains before exiting out of the other side of the Elite's head and burying itself in a chunk of concrete.

As soon as the bullet hit the Elite Specter switched his sights to the other Elites and killed them in a similar fashion, scattering their squads and causing chaos in the surrounding Grunt squads.

There was a loud _bang _and Entity leaned out from behind his cover in time to see a maroon colored Elite, whom was taking cover by the ruins of the gate, drop to the ground. The first shot was quickly followed by three others and Entity saw three more maroon colored Elite's fall to the ground with large holes in their heads.

He nodded to Spook, whom was taking cover beside him and they vaulted the railing between the protrusions, landing with a _thud _in the courtyard below. They landed in front of the downwards leading ramp, there was a large pile of rubble in the center of the courtyard and there were other makeshift barriers and vehicle husks lying around the courtyard. There were two makeshift barriers about five meters in front of Entity and Spook, a burnt out Warthog on the left and a large chunk of concrete on the right.

A blue Elite had walked out from behind the wreckage of the Warthog, leading a small group of Grunts with him and was busy firing at someone on the left walkway.

Entity straightened up as the covenant squad turned to face him, pointed the muzzle of his assault rifle at the nearby Elite who was leading a squad of three Grunts and pulled the trigger. Entity walked forwards as he fired, sending a stream of bullets slamming into the Elite's chest while Spook fired her DMR at the Grunts. Two of the Grunts dropped to the ground, bright blue blood leaking from wounds in their chests, while the Elites shield gave out and shattered into a thousand blue pieces.

The bullets tore into the Elites unprotected chest, shredding it and splattering the ground with dark purple blood. Entity's gun clicked empty and he let the empty clip drop to the ground while Spook sprinted towards the remaining Grunt.

Spook crossed the space between her and the remaining Grunt with incredible speed. She lashed out with her left foot, kicking the Grunt in the wrist and knocking the plasma pistol from its hands. As soon as her left foot touched the ground she brought her right foot up and stamped down on the Grunts head, breaking its neck and crushing its skull.

She crouched down behind the large chunk of concrete on her right as a nearby squad of four, previously leaderless, Elites whom where taking cover by the base of the rubble in the middle of the courtyard fired at her. Entity took cover behind the Warthog on her left to avoid the same deadly hail of plasma, slamming a new clip into the butt of his rifle as he did so.

There was a large pile of rubble in the center of the courtyard which was surrounded by a low, circular, concrete wall about ten meters across. A Grunt had set up a plasma canon on the top of the rubble pile and was busy firing at a group of terrified marines when a bullet, fired from Specter's watch tower, slammed into the small figures head.

The Grunts head exploded in a shower of bright blue blood and brains, while its headless body tumbled down the rubble pile. The sudden death of the Grunt scared the Elites and they ceased their attack, ducking their heads and glancing warily around themselves.

Entity, switched his assault rifle for his shotgun and charged around the corner of the Warthog, heading straight for the Elites, whom were gathered at the base of the rubble pile. He shouldered the lead Elite in the stomach, shattering its shield and throwing it on its back before turning to his left and blowing apart the chest of a second one with his shotgun.

He turned one-hundred and eighty degrees to his left in time to see one of the Elites point their plasma rifle at him. Entity lunged forwards and slammed the butt of his shotgun down onto the Elite's hand, breaking the bones in it and causing the Elite to utter a gargled cry of pain.

Entity leaned backwards as the Elite swung its left fist at his face and Spook, whom was leaning out from behind her cover, fired two shots with her DMR. The bullets flew through the tiny opening between Entity and his Elite attacker and slammed into the chest of the Elite that Entity had shouldered.

Without his shield to protect him the Elite was powerless to stop the two bullets. They buried themselves deep in his chest, each one accompanied by a small puff of purple blood. The Elite fell backwards, the energy dagger on his wrist disappearing as he did so.

Entity, whom had been briefly shocked by this revelation, sprang back into action while Spook kept the fourth Elite at bay, engaging it in a short range firefight and keeping it behind the Elite that Entity was fighting.

Entity delivered a viscous front kick, with his left leg, into the elites stomach, lifting it a centimeter or two off of the ground and causing it to double over in pain. He brought his gun to bear on the winded Elites head and pulled the trigger, turning the Elites head into a purple mush.

He raised his head to look beyond the tumbling, headless corpse in front of him and saw the last Elite die as Spook sent five rounds into it's, obviously un-shielded, stomach and torso.

Spook ran over to Entity and they advanced around the left side of the low wall. They had journeyed about two thirds of the way around the side of the wall when a Wraith came crashing through the ruined gate.

It smashed aside a large chunk of concrete and a destroyed Warthog before advancing towards Entity and Spook. The Elite gunner, one of the lower ranked blue clad ones, was sitting in the gunners seat and upon seeing the two Spartans he uttered a cry and fired a stream of deadly plasma towards them.

"Shit!" Entity yelled "Over the wall! Go! Go!"

They dived over the wall behind them, landing in the dirt in the other side and quickly scrambled into a sitting position with their backs against the wall.

"Hey Entity, Spook," Specter said, using the squads radio frequency "you guys have got a Wraith incoming. You might wanna find some cover."

"Yeah, thanks, we noticed." Spook replied, ducking her head as low as she could as the Elite fired at her again.

"What the hell is a Wraith doing here anyway?" she yelled "The catwalk is protected by an overhang and plasma resistant protrusions! There's nothing for it to target!"

"It's probably just some dickhead Sangheili trying to win himself honor and glory!" Entity replied.

He raised his head, only slightly, so that he could see over the wall. The Wraith was sitting about ten meters away, pointing straight towards Entity and Spooks position while two squads of blue clad Elites took cover behind plasma barriers beside it, one squad in each side.

"_They must have gotten barriers off of the Wraith._" Entity thought.

The Elites had originally been hiding by the gate but had advanced after the Wraith had arrived. Entity's observations were cut short as the Elite gunner spotted him and opened fire again.

"Dammit!" he yelled, ducking back down behind the wall "Hey Specter! Can you hurry up and take this guy out?!"

"On it!" Specter replied "Sorry, I was busy helping out some defenders on the left ramp."

There was a loud _BANG _and the hail of deadly plasma instantly stopped.

"Thanks Spec." Spook said, using Specters nickname.

Entity nodded towards Spook and they vaulted the wall, just in time to see the Wraith fire a massive pulse of blue plasma at the right watch tower.

"No!" Entity yelled.

His shout was drowned out by the cheer from the two Elite squads.

Entity ran at the Wraith and hopped to his right to avoid a hail of blue plasma fired by one of the Elites on the Wraiths left.

Spook pulled a grenade from her hip, flicked the pin out with her thumb, held onto it for a few seconds and rolled it into the middle of the Elite squad. It detonated in their midst, destroying all of their shields and scattering bloody body parts across the courtyard.

"Entity, get back here!" Spook yelled as she saw more Covenant warriors approaching.

Entity spun around and sprinted back to Spook, stumbling as the second squad of Elites fired their weapons and the plasma bounced off of shield his shield. Both Spook and Entity took up their original places behind the wall.

Specter, having just shot dead three Elites, whom were taking cover behind a plasma barrier in front of the left ramp, shifted his gaze to the gate just in time to see a purple Wraith speed through it. He followed the Wraith with his scope, trying to figure out why it would enter such a place. He saw it pass several lines of advancing covenant before it reached the center of the courtyard and its gunner opened fire on Entity and Spook. Specter saw them dive over the low wall behind them and he switched on his radio.

"Hey Entity, Spook, you guys have got a Wraith incoming." he said. "You might wanna find some cover."

He shifted his gaze back over to the left ramp and swore, not hearing Spook's reply. Two blue Elites had occupied their deceased comrades plasma barrier and were getting ready to fire at the marines in front of them.

"Oh no you don't!" Specter said, firing his Sniper Rifle at them.

The first Elite was hit in the side of the head and his body was hurled, by the force of the bullet, against the wall of the courtyard, creating a large splatter of purple blood against the wall. The second Elite was hit under the arm as he raised his plasma rifle towards the marines. The bullet sliced through its chest and tore through its heart and the Elite collapsed side ways.

"Hey Specter!" Entity yelled, making Specters ears ring "Can you hurry up and take this guy out?!"

"On it!" Specter replied, shifting his sights to the blue gunner near the center of the courtyard "Sorry, I was busy helping out some defenders on the left ramp."

Specter tried to level his sights on the Elites head and, after watching as the Elites upper body jerked and shuddered from the plasma cannons recoil, transferred his sights to its chest instead.

He pulled the trigger and a bullet shot out of the guns barrel and whizzed towards the unlucky Elite. It hit the Elite's chest, tearing through it in an explosion of blood and burst out the opposite side, denting the Wraiths armor plating.

"Thanks Spec." Spook said, over the radio.

Specter was about to say 'no problem' when he saw the Wraith rotate to face him.

"Uh-oh." he said.

The arms of the Wraiths main canon suddenly folded forwards, propelling a massive blob of blueish-purple plasma towards Specters position.

"Not good!" he yelled.

Without thinking Specter released his grip on the Sniper Rifle, placed his right hand on the windowsill/wall in front of him and vaulted it, just avoiding the plasma shell.

He fell two stories to the roof of the compound, the sides of which created the walls of the courtyard, below him as the top of the tower exploded in a hail of masonry, concrete and charred hunks of marine flesh. The roof was occupied by a blue clad Elite and three Jackals with shields, all of them were standing on the edge of the roof looking towards the gate for some reason.

Specter rolled as he hit the roof, transferring and dispersing his momentum. He came out of the roll, drawing his knife from its scabbard on his chest as he did so and prepared for the Elites attack.

The Elite had activated an energy sword and, holding it in his right hand, he charged Specter, swinging it at him in a murderous downwards arc.

Specter stepped forwards onto his left foot and brought his left arm out in a knife hand block, checking the Elite's attack and swung his knife, which was clasped in his right hand into the Elites thick neck. A trickle of blood ran out of the Elite's neck and flowed over Specters hand.

He pulled his knife, with a _shlick _noise, out of the Elite's neck and kicked the corpses chest with his right foot.

The dead Elite flew backwards into the left Jackal's back, knocking it off of the edge of the building. Specter landed with his right foot forwards, he spun his knife so that he was holding the blade between the tips of his fingers and swung his right arm across his body, sending the knife spinning into the right Jackals chest.

It _thunked _into the center of the Jackals chest and the alien creature crumpled to the ground.

Specter reversed the direction of his swing once his hand reached the hilt of his pistol, which was strapped to his left thigh. He gripped the pistol with his right hand and brought it to bear on the last Jackal, which was now turning to face Specter.

Specter squeezed the trigger five times, the gun bucking with each shot and sent five bullets into the Jackals exposed chest, his shield was on his right wrist and he had turned to the left in an effort to see Specter.

The Jackal toppled backwards, blood flying from his five new chest cavities and Specter raised himself out of his fighting stance as rain began to fall. The fight had lasted about ten seconds.

Specter look over his shoulder, as a crack of lightning illuminated the dark courtyard, towards the destroyed watch tower.

"Heh heh... Heh," he laughed in a nervous tone "I was nearly MIA there."

He walked over to the left side of the roof, the side overlooking the courtyard and peered down to see Spook blow apart a squad of Elites with a well timed grenade.

"Nice throw Spook." he said, pulling his DMR off of his back.

"Specter?!" Spook replied.

"In the flesh." Specter said, firing five quick shots at one of the Elites that was suppressing Entity and Spook.

The Elite's shield shattered and he fell to the ground, leaking purple blood from two holes in his neck and chest. The rest of the Elites ducked behind the Wraith.

"_Where the hell are these damn Brutes?!_" Phantom thought, as he walked through the dark, deserted corridors.

He had been walking through the base for at least thirty minutes without seeing or hearing anything that might lead him to the Brutes. He was about to give up, thinking the Brutes must have left by some kind of back door, when he heard a loud _crash._

He made his way silently towards the door, taking several sharp turns on the way. He came to an open doorway, pressed his back against the wall beside it and peeked in.

It was a bunk room and most of the bunks had been tossed against the wall, creating a large open area in the middle of the large room. Standing in the middle of the room were five large Brutes, one of which was bleeding from a wound in its arm.

"_Found you._" Phantom said, smiling beneath his helmet.

He checked his assault rifle, saw that it held a full round and leveled it on one of the Brutes.

He pulled the trigger, emptying the clip and sending thirty two rounds at the group of large gorilla-like aliens. Thirty of the rounds hit the two Brutes at the front, blowing large holes in their chests and arms and splattering their pack mates other blood. The two other bullets missed altogether.

The three remaining Brutes charged Phantom, roaring as they did so. He leaped to his left, reloading his gun as he did so and fired at the Brute who was rushing through the door way.

The Brutes skull was shattered as four bullets slammed into it and blood and brains flew everywhere. Another Brute emerged from the doorway and Phantom pulled the trigger. There was a loud _clack _as his gun jammed. He glanced down at it.

"_Shit._" he thought as the Brute slammed into him.

It carried him down the corridor, roaring as it went and slammed him into the wall. Phantom let out a yell and ducked as the Brute threw a lunch at his head. Phantom drew his knife from its scabbard and slammed up into the Brutes armpit. The Brute roared in both rage and pain and Phantom quickly silenced it by stabbing it's neck... Twice.

He pulled his knife out of the Brutes neck, letting the heavy corpse drop to the ground and threw his knife at the last Brute, which was charging towards him.

His knife sunk into the Brutes right shoulder. The Brute continues to run forward, hardly noticing the sharp steel object sticking out of its shoulder. It leaped at Phantom and he ducked to avoid it. It slammed into the wall and Phantom grabbed its left shoulder with his left hand and sent three powerful punches into its kidneys.

The Brute roared in pain and Phantom swept its legs out from underneath it with his right foot. The Brute crashed to the ground and Phantom stomped down hard on its head, crushing it's skull and killing it.

Phantom removed his helmet and took a few deep breaths. He out his helmet back on, retrieved his knife and scooped up his jammed gun.

"Useless pile of crap." he muttered as he headed for the loading bay door.

"Dammit!" Spirit yelled, pulling his head behind the protrusion as the Wraith fired a low, straight shit towards him.

"We need to get rid of that thing, it's keeping us pinned down while the Elites swarm and kill us." Greaves said.

"I'm on it." Spirit replied.

"Specter!" Spirit said "Can you see any weapons that might help us eliminate that damn Wraith?!"

"Hold on," Specter said "I'll see what I can find."

Spirit didn't bother leaning out to take a shot. There were no more Covenant left in his half of the courtyard, Entity and Spook had seen to that.

"Hey Spirit!" came Specter's voice "I've got you something, on the far left walkway by the ramp there's a rocket launcher."

"Thanks Spec." Spirit replied.

He made his way over to the left walkway, dashing between the evenly spaced protrusions and came to a stop by the last protrusion, overlooking the ramp.

He looked down the ramp and saw a dead marine, covered in burn marks and leaking blood, lying by the base of the ramp. The rocket launcher lay beside him.

"_Crap,_" he thought "_he must have rolled down there after he died._"

Spirit glanced around the corner of the protrusion, saw that the Wraith was facing away from him, firing at the right walkway. There was a squad of three Elite's hiding behind the Wraith and another squad of four Elites were taking cover over by the ruins of the gate. The rest of the Covenant forces had fallen back.

Spirit pulled his head back behind the protrusion, took a few deep breaths and sprinted down the ramp. He was halfway down the ramp when the Elites by the gate spotted him. They fired their plasma rifles towards him and he dived forwards, dodging the blue plasma.

He landed at the base of the ramp and rolled, grabbing the rocket launcher as he did so. He came out of his roll facing the Wraith, with his weapon aimed straight at it. He pulled the trigger just as the Elites fired at him again.

The rocket flew into the back of the Wraiths chassis and Spirit staggered as three bolts of plasma slammed into his shield. He stumbled backwards and rolled to his right, towards the ramp.

One of the Elites threw an armed plasma grenade and it landed a few centimeters to Spirit's left. He turned around and ran towards the ramp. The grenade detonated as Spirit reached the base of the ramp and he was thrown up it, his shields barely holding out. He landed on his stomach halfway up the ramp and groaned. He shook his head and crawled forwards, shielded from the Elite's view by the ramps low railing.

He made it safely behind the protrusion, retrieved his assault rifle from where he had left it and sighed.

The Wraith exploded in bright purple flames and sent smoking prices of purple wreckage flying around the courtyard. The explosion obliterated the three Elites that had been hiding behind the Wraith. The Elites by the gate were the last hostile forces remaining.

Entity vaulted the low wall on front of him and sprinted over to the wreckage of the Wraith, taking cover behind it. Spook joined him and they both fired their weapons, over the top of the Wraith, towards the remaining four Elites.

The Elite that Entity fired at was caught out in the open and he soon succumbed to the onslaught of bullets, falling backwards as five bullets tore into his chest.

Spook had chosen to fire at an Elite in the far left whom had raised himself up to get a better shot. She sent three bullets into his chest, severely weakening his shield. Specter fired off a shot from his DMR, hitting the weakened Elite in the head and shattering its already weak shield. Spook seized her chance and sent three rounds into the Elites chest.

Entity pulled a grenade from his hip, primed it and threw it towards the two remaining Elites while Spook reloaded her DMR. One of the Elites scooped up the grenade and was about to throw it back at them when it detonated. It blew the unlucky Elite apart tore his squad mate in half, scattering purple blood and alien body parts everywhere.

Spirit jogged up to the gate in time to see a squad of five Grunts scuttle off down the street.

"On me!" he ordered, speaking into his radio.

Specter dropped from the roof of the compound don't into the courtyard, rolling as he land and jogged up to Spirits position. He arrived at the same time as Entity and Spook, closely followed by Poltergeist and Phantom.

"Glad you aren't MIA." Entity chuckled, slapping Specter on the back.

"Cut the chatter." Spirit ordered, not wanting his squad to lose track of the situation.

"We've secured the area but it's only temporary. Specter, get out their," Spirit gestured towards the street "and do some recon work, see what you can find out about the Covenants movements. Spook and Phantom, you see if you can establish contact with ONI. Entity and Polt, your with me. We're gonna make some room and establish a routine for these marines." he finished.

"And someone close that door!" he added, pointing towards the loading bay door.

*Hey guys thanks for reading and if you could please drop me a review then that would be much appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

****_*Kig-Yar= Jackals_/ _Unngoy=Grunts/ Sangheili=Elites/ Mgalekgolo=Hunters_

**Chapter 3: Splitting the Squad**

**Date: August 14th 2552**

**Time: 07:30 hours**

**Planet: Reach**

**Location: ONI Tower Base, South Gate**

**Mission: Establish contact with ONI high command**

The early morning sun glinted off of the Covenant machinery as the alien warriors milled about the area before the large gates. There was a large, wide, straight road leading away from the gates and the road itself was lined with large, partially destroyed buildings.

The was a large guard house on the right side of the gate and a long, plasma scorched, garage on the left side. The gates had been destroyed, smashed aside and burned to ash by the Covenant armada and they had placed four long, purple barriers across the gaping hole.

There was a squad of three Jackals, with Energy Beams, on the flat roof of the garage and a large group of Engineers were inspecting the Warthogs within it. A squad of four blue Elites guarded the entrance to the garage while another two squads of four blue Elites guarded the smashed gates.

There were four squads of five Grunts moving crates by the side of the road and there were two maroon colored Elites inspecting the guard house. A pair of massive Hunters were patrolling the side of the road that lead away from the gates, they were accompanied by three blue Elites.

A large Covenant Phantom suddenly appeared out of the sun and glided into the middle of the road.

"Well, well, well," Specter muttered, from his position on the third floor of a building on the same side as the guard house "what have we got here?"

Specter had been observing the Covenant force from his position by the destroyed window of a large three story building for three hours. He had originally been standing up but after about twenty minutes his legs began to tire and so he began to kneel. After an hour of kneeling he decided to move into a prone position, which lead up to his current situation.

He brought the scope of his Sniper Rifle, which he had taken from a dead marine after his own one had been blown to pieces, up to his visor covered eye. He zoomed in on the shimmering blue gravity field that had been deployed by the Phantom and watched as three Zealot class Elites dropped onto the road.

"Well hello ugly." Specter muttered, watching as the two maroon Elites came running over to greet them.

Voro' Chonchiyo and Rha' Chonchiyo, two high ranking, maroon colored Sangheili warrios, jogged over to greet the new arrivals.

"Greetings my superiors." Voro said to the lead Zealot, in the language of the Covenant.

"Report." he replied in a blunt tone.

Voro stifled his anger.

"_How can he be so disregarding!_" Voro thought.

"My deepest apologies sir, but the humans have pushed us back. We lost the courtyard." he reported.

"Raaagh!" cried the Zealot, unsheathing his Energy Dagger and swiping it across Voro's cheek "You pathetic whelp! How could you let this happen."

"It wasn't our fault!" Rha cried, jumping in to defend his younger brother "We had the humans cornered and were about to achieve victory when a group of demons appeared!"

"You impudent whelp!" the Zealot screamed, back handing Rha across the face and knocking him on his back "How dare you address a superior in that manner! Get your forces back there and crush the human filth."

"But what of the demons?" Voro asked.

"You think I care about your pathetic life?! Eliminate those humans or I will personally ensure that you never embark on the great journey!"

"_Which might turn out to be a mixed blessing._" Rha thought, over the years he and his brother had been having more and more doubts about this supposed 'great journey' and if it was ever going to happen.

"Yes my lord." he replied.

"Ouch!" Specter exclaimed as he saw the lead Zealot cut one of the maroon Elite's cheek "That's gotta sting."

He shifted his gaze away from the five Elites towards the garage where two Phantoms where dropping off a pair of Wraiths.

He returned his gaze to the Elites and saw that the Zealots were being sucked back up into the belly of their Phantom. The Phantom turned around and flew out over the gates, while the two maroon Elites began to yell orders.

Every single Covenant warrior on the road and it's surrounding area organized themselves into small squads. They were marched in the opposite direction of the gates by the maroon Elites, followed closely by the two Wraiths. The only Covenant forces left were the squad of Jackals, a group of five Grunts and two blue Elites.

"Uh-oh," Specter said, replacing his Sniper Rifle with his DMR "I better radio ahead, let Spirit know he's got some guests on the way."

He pushed himself into a crouching position, making sure to stay away from the prying eyes of the Jackal lookouts and made his way through the rubble strewn building.

"Hey Spirit." he whispered into his helmet radio as he jumped from the blown out wall of one building through the window of another.

"Specter," Spirit replied "what did you find?"

"You've got a Covenant attack force headed your way," Specter replied, vaulting the railing of a staircase and landing silently on the buildings ground floor "composed of Grunts, Elites, a few Jackals and two Wraiths."

Specter whistled over the radio.

"Alright thanks, get back here on the double. Spooks almost got the radio operational." he said.

"On it." Specter replied, ducking behind a blood stained wall as a blue Elite, whom was patrolling the area, walked past.

Specter, not wanting to waste any time, pulled his knife from its chest sheath and silently approached the Elite.

"_Heads up._" he thought.

He covered the Elites strange mouth, as best as he could, with his left hand and slipped his knife into its neck. The Elite let out a short gurgle, somewhat muffled by the Mjolnir clad hand and fell to the floor, a small river of purple blood leaking from its neck.

Specter wiped his knife on his left shoulder pad and re-sheathed it. He retrieved his DMR from where he had placed it and continued on.

"You almost done?" Phantom asked for the millionth time.

"I told you before," Spook sighed, for the millionth time "you can't rush these things. I swear," she continued, looking over towards Simon, who's shin had been filled with bio-foam "the things they expect you to do."

"Tell me about it." Simon replied, handing Spook a tool.

Spook had removed her helmet several hours earlier, revealing a young, pretty but battle worn face with a scar down her right cheek and shoulder length brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail. The pony tail was squashed into the helmet when it was equipped for those who were wondering.

"Hey, you said that you could have this hunk of junk operational in no time!" Phantom said, smiling and helmet less.

"Yeah, and that was before I saw the damn thing!" Spook replied, letting out a small laugh.

Spook and Phantom had lugged the tall, thin radio tower out of the ramp below the catwalks main platform. It had taken quite a beating and it had taken both Spook and Simon, both talented field mechanics, several hours to get it in its current state.

"Hey Phantom," Simon said, grinning good naturedly "why don't you go see if Entity needs any help, you know, bitch to him."

"Ah ha ha," Phantom mocked "funny, I thought you guys were supposed to show respect to your superiors."

"Just the ones that scare us." Simon replied.

"Fine." Phantom replied, chuckling and pushing himself off of the low wall he was sitting on.

Spook and Phantom had dragged the radio tower into the center of the courtyard, inside of the low circular wall, while the various other marines, including Taylor and Greaves, had piled the covenant bodies out of the way.

Phantom scooped up his helmet and walked over towards Entity and Spirit, passing by Poltergeist and Bright as he went.

"Hey Polt, Bright." he nodded, stopping to talk to them "How you feeling?"

"Sleepy," Bright replied "Polt here gave me some drugs and now everything is starting to wobble, hey Phan...Tom! Do you know that your..." she swayed and Poltergeist caught her.

"Okay," Poltergeist said, sitting Bright down "that's enough movement for you private."

Poltergeist lay a now sleeping Bright against the wall and turned to face Phantom.

"So whats the news?" she asked, removing her OPERATOR helmet and revealing a face that was a lot like Spook's, only Polt had short black hair that almost reached her shoulders.

"Spook's almost done with the radio," Phantom said, as both he and Poltergeist walked over to Entity and Spirit "and it looks like Spirit just got word from Specter."

"So whats the news?" Polt asked as Spirit turned to face them.

Entity removed his helmet, revealing a young, battle worn face with brown hair. He was large by Spartan standards but he was by no means the largest of the Spartan II's.

"Just got word from Specter," Spirit informed them "we've got a large Covenant attack force headed our way and they've got two Wraiths. Polt and Phantom, tell every squad of marines to take a bubble shield from the pile we salvaged and get them into position, Entity and I will-"

"Hey! I got it working!" Spook yelled, interrupting Spirit mid sentence.

The Spartans jogged over to the radio tower, wirelessly connecting to it with their helmet radios.

"ONI high command, this is Spartan two zero-zero-nine code named Spirit, leader of Ghost squad. Do you copy?" Spirit said, giving Spook a silent thumbs up.

"This is ONI high command, we hear you loud and clear Spirit." came a voice "What is your current situation."

"We're cornered in the main courtyard of Tower Base and request immediate extraction." Spirt said "We have multiple wounded and a large Covenant attack force is closing in on us."

"Uhh, that is a negative on the extraction Spirit," the voice replied "ONI is charging your squad with the retrieval of two high value targets."

"I'll be needing details on these targets."

"One of them is a forerunner artifact that was uncovered by a Covenant dig team to the south east of Tower Base and the other is an ONI officer in an outpost to the south west."

"Confirmed command, we'll get it done."

Spirit clicked his radio off and turned to face his squad.

"All right you heard em," he said, switching in his squad radio "Specter and Phantom, you two retrieve the ONI official while Poltergeist and Entity get that artifact. Spook and I will stay here and hold the courtyard."

"There are some undamaged Warthogs by the south gate that we can use." Specter said over the radio.

"Do it," Spirit replied "move out."

The Spartans gave him a quick salute and went their separate ways.

"Quiet!" hissed Specter as Poltergeist misplaced her foot, a rare mistake for a Spartan of any kind and sent a small pebble skittering across the floor.

"Hey I'm the medic," she replied, in an annoyed voice "you're the sneaky one. Where just going to kill those Covenant anyway, so I don't see why we have to be quiet now."

"Yeah what gives?" Phantom whispered "I thought we were going to kill those guys not spend five hours sneaking by them."

"You want to mount a head on assault against them and die, then be my guest." Specter whispered back, pulling his Sniper Rifle off of his back and replacing it with his DMR.

"Stay focused!" Entity said in a firm but hushed tone.

"Okay," Specter said, zooming in on the Elites "I've got eyes on one of the Elites, the other ones gone behind a Warthog.

The two blue Elites were strolling around and inspecting the Warthogs in the garage, the Jackals were still on the roof of the garage while the Grunts had sat down a small circle and were tossing some strange objects about.

Poltergeist pulled a grenade from her hip and tested its weight.

"I reckon I can get the Grunts with this." she said.

"And I can probably take down the Jackals with my DMR." Entity replied, pulling the DMR off of Specters back.

"Well then, let's do this." Specter replied, pulling the trigger as Entity opened fire and Poltergeist threw her grenade.

There was a loud _crack_, accompanied by a series of smaller _bangs _and the blue Elite's head exploded, shattering its shields and splattering the Warthog behind it with purple blood. At the same time two of the Jackals were hit three times each by Entity's DMR, they dropped to the ground while the third one crawled backwards, leaving a large purple stain behind it.

The Grunts jumped to their feet after the first shot and were blown to pieces by Poltergeist's well placed grenade.

Entity placed the DMR on Specters back, pulled an assault rifle off of his own back and vaulted the low wall, created when the wall facing the street had been blown inwards during a previous battle and fell three stories to the tarmac road below.

He rolled as he hit the road and advanced, through the remains of the Grunts and towards the garage, his assault rifle at the ready. He approached the dead Elite and stepped over its headless body. He jumped backwards as the last Elite, whom had been hiding behind the Warthog, jumped out at him.

The Elite swung his plasma sword in a downwards arc, straight towards Entity's right shoulder. Entity leaned backwards, avoiding the deadly blade and, holding his assault rifle across his body, swung the butt of the rifle into the Elite's exposed jaw.

There was a loud _smack _as the rifle made contact with the Elite's thin lower jaw, which snapped and bent at an awkward angle and the Elite fell sideways, dropping his weapon and knocking himself unconscious on the wheel of the Warthog.

Entity aimed his assault rifle at the Elite's head and then lowered it.

The other Spartans came jogging up to Entity.

"I thought you were actually going to shoot him for a moment there." Specter said.

"Yeah me too." Poltergeist said, kneeling down next to the Elite and inspecting its wounds "he's going to have one hell of a headache."

"I'll tie him up." Phantom said, grabbing the Elite by it's wrists and dragging it out of the garage.

He walked over to one of the many Warthogs, popped its bonnet and removed a long piece of wire or chain from its engine, which he used to bind the Elites arms and wrists.

None of them could bring themselves to kill an unarmed and unconscious enemy. It just seemed so wrong to kill an already defeated and unconscious enemy.

Specter sat down in the drivers seat of the blood splattered Warthog while Phantom dragged the dead Elite out of the way. Poltergeist revved the engine of the Warthog next to Specters and called out.

"Come on Entity!" she said "Let's go get this artifact."

Entity finished heaving two of the purple barriers away from the gate and ran over to Poltergeists Warthog. He climbed up onto the turret position while Phantom mirrored him on Specters Warthog.

They revved the engines on their Warthogs and drove out of the gate, Specters Warthog fishtailed slightly as he turned it towards the gate. They drove out of the compound and came to a fork in the road.

Poltergeist turned her Warthog left and headed towards the desert like region to the south east while Specter turned his right and headed towards the jungle in the south west.

Specter and Phantom had been driving for three hours, they had entered the hot, humid jungle an hour ago and had followed a muddy track deep into the jungle, the purple bloodstains on their chassis slowly being covered by the mud.

Phantom glanced down at the small gps device that he carried and thumped his fist on the top of the Warthog.

"Hey!" he yelled "We should probably pull over, this thing says we're getting close."

"Good idea." Specter replied.

He cut the engine and allowed the Warthog to roll off of the mud track and into the underbrush by the left side of the track. He stepped out of the Warthog, his DMR on his back and his Sniper in his hand and scanned the bright green area around him.

Phantom hopped off of the turret and grabbed his shotgun from the passenger seat, his assault rifle was magnetized to his back.

They ventured out onto the track, got their Mjolnir clad feet covered in mud and decided to follow the track from within the trees. They journeyed through the underbrush, stepping over puddles and pushing aside fern fronds.

Phantom stepped on a twig and immediately put all of his weight on his back foot, stopping himself from cracking the twig in half. He looked over to Specter, whom was several meters ahead and stalking through the jungle like it wasn't even there.

"_How the hell does he do that?!_" Phantom wondered, watching as Specter avoided stepping on anything that would make a noise without even looking down.

"_Oh well._" he thought, shrugging his shoulders and struggling to catch up.

They came to a sudden and abrupt stop when they emerged from a behind a wall of ferns onto the top of a small mud cliff. Specter crouched down amongst the green foliage, as did Phantom and they observed the small, two building outpost below them.

The out post had a large square wall, about three heads taller then Phantom, running around it with two, now broken, chain link gates. One on the side facing Phantom and Specter and one set in the left wall.

Specter raised his Sniper Rifle to his eye while Phantom made do with the zoom function on his visor.

The was a large, upside down L shaped building, with a three story tower rising out of the back of it, pressed against the right wall and there was a small rectangular building pressed vertically against the top left wall.

Using his scope, Specter observed a squad of four blue Elites by the front gate dragging the bodies of three marines away from the gate. He Looked towards the front of the L building and noticed a pack of five Brutes arguing over something shiny.

"I've got eyes on a Special Operations squad." Phantom muttered.

Specter shifted his gaze to the back wall of the compound and spied four Special Operations Elites talking amongst themselves.

"That's three enemy squads." Specter murmured, checking the Sniper's ammo.

"How many do you reckon you can take out with that over sized rifle?" Phantom asked.

"Oversized?" Specter said, smiling under his helmet "I reckon I could four of either the blue Elites or the Brutes."

"What about the Spec Ops?" Phantom asked, making sure the barrel of his shot gun was clear.

"I might be able to get one," Specter replied "but as soon as I fire the first shot the other three will scatter."

"Hmm, how about two of the Brutes and two of the Elites?" Phantom said "Might even things out a little."

"Good thinking," Specter said, laying his sights on one of the larger Brutes "you should get down there and ready a grenade or something, those Spec Ops will scatter but the others will be confused and scared."

"You know I'm a Spartan too right? I do know these things." Phantom lectured, raising himself up.

"Just making sure," Specter said, smirking and turning his head towards Phantom "you did take an awful long time to kill those Brutes back at Tower Base."

Phantom chuckled, shook his helmet clad head and moved off into the foliage.

Specter waited, lying in the mud and the dirt at the top of the hill, for seven and a half minutes, he was timing Phantom with his HUD clock. He finally saw Phantom emerge silently from the ferns by the left so of the compounds wall.

Specter watched as Phantom made his way along the left wall until he was hiding just around the corner from the squad of blue Elites. He looked up to Specters position and gave a thumbs up.

Specter sighed, wishing for the millionth time that he had his old mark V, green, Mjolnir armor. He felt incredibly exposed up here with his dark colored armor and the fact that Phantom had just looked directly at him made him feel like he was sticking out like a sore thumb.

"_Well at least it will come in handy for night ops._" Specter thought.

He leveled his small, circular sights on the head of a particularly large Brute that had just head butted a smaller one. He pulled the trigger and the Brutes head was blown apart by a high caliber bullet, spraying purple blood everywhere. He quickly shifted his sights to a second Brute and pulled the trigger again, the Brutes head exploded in much the same fashion as the first.

As soon as he had finished with the Brutes he switched his gaze to the now terrified Elites. He fired with uncanny accuracy, felling two Elites that were running for cover.

As soon as Phantom heard the first two shots he pulled a grenade from his chest armor. He peeked around the corner of the wall in time to see two Elites tumble to the ground, blood pouring out of the massive holes in their heads.

He pulled the pin and threw his grenade, underhand, at the group of startled, bloodstained and angry Brutes, which had now been joined by the two surviving Elites.

It detonated in their midst, shattering the Elites shields and blowing the Brutes apart in an explosion of limbs, blood and gore. One of the Elites arms was torn from its body by the explosion while the other Elite was hurled against the wall of the L shaped building.

Phantom quickly switched his shotgun for the assault rifle on his back and charged around the corner. He sprinted towards the Spec Op Elites at the back of the compound, firing while he went, as Specter finished off the surviving Elite with a quick shot from his Sniper.

Phantom emptied his entire clip, sending thirty two rounds streaming towards the four Elites. One of the Elites was hit, at various pints across its body, seven times, it's shield shimmering a bright orange and threatening to break. The other bullets impacted harmlessly in the dirt and compound wall, a few stray ones bounced off of the other Elites shields.

The Elites panicked, activated their camo and sprinted for a door to their right, ducking and yelling as Specter fired three hasty shots after them. They dived inside the door, slamming it behind them, as Phantom reached it. He reloaded his rifle and grunted in frustration.

"Dammit!" he yelled, banging his fist against the door.

"Whoa calm down dude," Specter said, appearing beside Phantom "or were you planning on punching your way through that steel door."

"How the hell did you get down here so fast?!" Phantom exclaimed, whirling around to face Specter.

"I just slid down the hill," Specter laughed, pushing Phantoms gun muzzle down "it's not like I had to be stealthy or anything."

"Well," Phantom replied, switching his assault rifle for his shotgun and walking towards the front of the L building "I guess we better find this ONI spook."

"How the hell did dirt get into my helmet?!" Entity grunted, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it.

"I know what you mean," Poltergeist replied, peeking around the corner of the rock they were hiding behind "remember when the Covenant first appeared and we were sent off into the desert to fight them?"

"Oh god that was hell," Entity said "that campaign is the reason I can't stand beaches anymore."

"When have you ever been to a beach?" Poltergeist asked, using her HUD's zoom function to observe the large, dug-out, hole in the ground ten meters below them "I mean it's not like we get holidays or anything."

"Well then it's the reason why I won't like beaches," Entity chuckled "once we're done with this damn war."

There was a moment of silence as they crouched behind the large, cream colored rock. The rock was sitting in the edge of a ten meter high cliff and the large, circular, dig site lay thirty meters from the base of the cliff.

"What do you thinks going to happen to us after this war is over?" Poltergeist asked "I mean that's why they made us, to fight wars."

"We'll probably be used as 'peacekeepers'." Entity replied, emphasizing the peacekeepers.

"Ah," Poltergeist said "that means fighting more rebels."

"Well it'll make a nice change from these bloodthirsty split mouths," Entity said, taking a certain interest in some new arrivals at the dig site "speaking of which, what have we here?"

He adjusted his position, leaning out from behind the rock a little further and fixed his zoom function on the west side of the Covenant dig site. There were four large, purple metal spikes poking out of the dirt around the dig site, forming a large square.

Inside the center of the dig site there was a small rectangular object with three engineers surrounding it. There were four squads of four Ultra class Elites and a large Covenant Phantom had just dropped off three Zealot class Elites.

The squads of Ultra Elites were stationed at the gaps between the purple protrusions.

"That's a lot of Elites." Entity muttered.

"Yeah," Poltergeist replied "I count twenty-one in total."

"Here take these." Entity said, pulling two, bright orange grenades from his waist.

"Thanks," Poltergeist replied, taking the grenades "they incendiary?"

"No," Entity said, opening the loading chamber of his grenade launcher "high powered and packed with shrapnel. One of these should be enough to take out an entire squad of Ultras."

"Nice." Poltergeist said, popping one into her grenade launcher.

"I'll take the right squad." Entity said, tagging the squad of Ultras by the right side of the dig site with his HUD.

"I'll take the furthest one away." Poltergeist said, not bothering to highlight her targets.

Neither of them bothered to suggest firing at the Zealots, they both knew how strong their shields were. They brought their guns to bear on their respective targets. After the firefight at the courtyard they had managed to scavenge two grenade launchers from some dead marines.

They pulled the triggers of their launchers in unison and sent two, orange colored grenades whistling through the air. Entity had fired his grenade high into the air so that it would land at the same time as Poltergeists.

Poltergeists grenade struck one of the Elites in the center of its chest and detonated. The unlucky Elite was vaporized as the grenade detonated in a brilliant explosion of bright orange fire and deadly shrapnel. The three other Ultras barely had time to yell before their shields were shattered and their bodies were peppered with razor sharp shrapnel. They fell to the ground, leaking blood and missing limbs while the Elites by the right side of the dig site suffered a similar fate and fell to the ground, two of them burned beyond recognition.

The surviving Elites ducked and dived for cover, readying their weapons and searching frantically for their hidden attackers. They yelled at each other and swiveled their heads.

Entity loaded another orange grenade into his launcher and jumped out from behind his rock. He stepped off the edge of the cliff and slid down to the base, with a torrent of dust and small rocks following him. He fired his launcher when he was halfway down the cliff face, blowing one Ultra apart in a hail of blood and sending another one flying.

Two Ultras ran out from behind the purple protrusion on the lower left and fired their plasma repeaters at Entity's fast moving form. Poltergeist, whom had loaded her last orange grenade, fired at the two strafing Elites.

The two Elites stopped in their tracks as they saw the orange grenade spinning towards them and they hopped away from each other, the grenade detonating in the vacant space between them.

The Elite on the right grunted as he was covered in a shower of dirt, thrown up by the nearby explosion and yelled in surprise as Entity sent a normal grenade into its chest. The Elites shield flared a bright blue, shattered and the Elite was thrown backwards. The Elite rolled backwards as it landed, popped up onto its feet and exploded as Poltergeist sent another grenade into its unshielded chest.

The Elite on the left sprinted for the purple protrusion on the right side of the dig site while his five remaining Elite comrades stayed hidden and confused behind the protrusions of the left side of the dig site.

Her last grenade spent, Poltergeist dropped her grenade launcher, pulled her assault rifle off of her back and slid down the cliff face. Entity sprinted towards one of the large rocks surrounding the dig site, firing his assault rifle at the sprinting Elite while he did so.

Nine if his bullets hit the Elite's lower legs and it crashed to the ground while the rest of Entity's bullets missed it completely, whistling over its head as it crashed to the ground.

Poltergeist reached the bottom of the cliff, saw the Elite fall as Entity's bullets slammed into its legs and raised her assault rifle to eye level. She ran forward and fired at the prone Elite. Her bullets slammed into its side, causing it to stumble again. The Elites shield flared a bright blue, gave out and allowed Poltergeists bullets to shred its chest, splattering purple blood everywhere.

Poltergeist's gun clicked empty and she swore, a rather nasty curse, as she saw the five remaining Elites, whom had now been organized by the three Zealots, charged, and in some cases hopped, out from behind their cover.

They saw Poltergeist standing out in the open, raised their plasma repeaters and fired, sending hundreds of deadly, blue, plasma bolts streaming towards Poltergeist's shocked form.

She swore again, this curse even nastier then the last and spun to her right, holding her rifle in her left hand and drawing her pistol in her right and firing it as she went. Her pistol bullets were all tipped in an incredibly hard metal alloy, courtesy of Specter's cannibalization of his own sniper bullets.

Poltergeist fired off five of these hard tipped bullets before she completed her spin, ending up behind a large, soon to be slightly black, rock. The five bullets hit one of the closest Ultra Elites, three of them hit it's chest, shattering it's blue shield while the other two slammed into the exposed flesh of his chest and shoulder, spraying purple blood over the Elites comrades.

The four surviving Ultras, and their three Zealot overlords, continued to fire at Poltergeist's, now very black, rock. She tried to swear, couldn't think of an appropriately nasty curse word and decided against it, resolving to radio Entity instead.

"Hey Ent," she radioed, slightly out of breath from her recent, near death, encounter "I'm pinned down by these Elite bastards, anything you can do would be real appreciated."

"I'm on it," Entity grunted in reply "stay there, you've got them nicely distracted."

"Oh don't you worry," Poltergeist replied "I'll stay here as long as I need too."

A dribble of molten rock slid down the rock next to Poltergeist.

"Or at least until they melt my rock." she added, laughing nervously.

Entity reloaded his assault rifle and made his way around the left side of the dig site. He went unnoticed by the Elites, whom were distracted by Poltergeist and Entity son ended up on the far side of the dig site, facing the Elite's backs.

He pulled a normal grenade from his waist and flicked the pin out. He lobbed it at a group of three Elites, which were to the left of the dig site. It landed in the middle of them and detonated, shattering their shields and throwing them on their backs.

Entity raised his gun to eye level, pointed it at the downed Ultras and loosed his entire clip towards them. The Elites were in the middle of struggling to their feet when they were hit by Entity's bullets. Large holes were torn in their unshielded bodies and they fell back to the ground, rivers of blood pouring out of their bodies.

The two Ultras on the right of the now dead ones stopped firing and glanced back wards in confusion. The Zealots yelled insults and commands at the remaining Ultras.

The Ultras, after receiving their harsh orders, resumed firing at Poltergeist's half melted rock while the Zealots drew their own weapons and advanced towards Entity's position.

Poltergeist pulled a fresh clip from her waist and was about to load it when an activated plasma grenade soared over the rock and landed at her feet. She sprinted to her left and the grenade exploded. The shockwave caught Poltergeist in the back, lifted her off her feet and slammed her to the ground.

"Oomph!" she cried, as the air was knocked from her lungs.

Her helmet bounced off of a rock as she landed, shattering one of the lenses on her OPERATOR helmet and making her see stars. She groaned and pushed herself into her hands and knees.

She shook her head, trying to clear the buzzing within it and spied her assault rifle on the ground before her.

"Poltergeist!" shouted Entity, over the radio.

"I'm here," she replied, realizing that his voice had been the buzzing sound "Im a bit shook up, but I'm alive."

She scooped up her assault rifle, reached for an ammo clip and found that the explosion had knocked them from her waist.

"Crap," Entity said "I've got Zealots incoming, your on your own with those two Ultras."

"Roger that Ent," Poltergeist replied "give em hell."

She placed her assault rifle on her back, waiting for it to magnetize into place. She pulled her only remaining weapon, her pistol, from her thigh and made her way through the maze of rocks.

She came to a stop behind a rock on the right of her previous cover and peeked out from behind it.

The two Ultras had stopped firing and were cautiously advancing towards the molten rock. She pulled her head back behind her rock and waited.

The two Ultras approached the melted rock, their weapons at the ready. They were nervous. Anyone could see that. The way they moved, the way jerked their heads at the slightest sound all gave the impression of them being terrified.

And who could blame them? They were dealing with the cursed demons! The very beings who had fought off thousands off covenant troops singlehanded. There was even a rumor going around that they couldn't be killed.

The Ultras pushed their doubts to the back of their minds and dashed around of the corner of the rock. Straight into the muzzle of a sage colored demon's pistol.

_Bang!_

_Bang!_

Poltergeist lowered her pistol as the Ultras fell to the ground, leaking brain fluid from the holes in their heads. The Elites had never had a chance. Not at close range with pistol-sniper hybrid bullets.

Poltergeist slid her clip out of the butt of the pistol and checked its ammo. One bullet left. She would have to make it count.

"Shit!" Entity yelled, his voice broadcasting over the helmet radio.

Entity's swear was followed by a loud crash which was in turn followed by the guttural laugh of an Elite Zealot.

Poltergeist slammed her clip back into the pistol and sprinted over to Entity's position, which was highlighted in her helmet's HUD.

_Bang!_

_Bang!_

Entity heard Poltergeist's shots as one of the Zealots rounded the rock in front of him. He fired his assault rifle, catching the Zealot in the chest and turning its shields a dull bluey-white.

"_This is not working._" Entity thought, as the Zealot laughed and charged him, gripping a plasma sword in its right hand.

Entity hurled his assault rifle at the Zealot and ran to meet it head on. The Zealot flicked its sword in an upward arc, slicing the assault rifle in half. Entity ducked under the Zealots sword, which was still raised from slicing the assault rifle.

He grasped the Zealot around its waist, the force of which winded it and knocked the sword from its grasp. Ignoring the punches that it rained down on his back, Entity heaved the Zealot off of its feet and slammed it down onto the ground, it's shield giving out in the process.

The Zealot cried out and Entity punched it in the mouth, breaking its lower jaws. He was about to punch it again when he saw, from the corner of his eye, another Zealot charging him from his right side.

He swiveled his torso towards the incoming Zealot, keeping the first one pinned to the ground at the same time. The Zealot hopped to a stop in front of Entity and thrust it's sword towards him.

Entity leaned backwards, avoiding the deadly jab and grasped the Elites wrist with his left hand.

"Nice stick." he grunted, as he pulled the Zealot towards him, bringing up his left elbow and slamming it into its head.

The Zealot yelled, dropped its sword and grasped Entity's throat while the Zealot beneath Entity thrust it's hips skywards and rolled to its left.

Entity was left with a Zealot holding his throat and a Zealot behind him. He assessed his options in a heartbeat and realized that he still had a hold on the second Zealot's wrist.

He hauled it towards him, intending to kick the Zealot over his head and send it flying into the other one. But the Zealot was ready for him and instead of being kicked in the stomach it did something else.

The Zealot stumbled forwards and miraculously regained its balance in time to avoid Entity's kick. It sidestepped his legs and grasped the collar of his GREANDIER chest piece with its free hand.

The Zealot picked Entity up, actually picked him up and threw him against a nearby rock.

"Shit!" Entity yelled, as he sailed through the air.

Entity slid to the bottom of the rock and looked up in time to see the Zealot charge him. It threw a punch, catching Entity in the face and spinning him sideways. The Zealot straddled him and activated it's plasma daggers.

It thrust it's right wrist, and it's deadly dagger, towards Entity's face. Entity made a desperate grab and secured his fingers around the Zealot's wrist, a second before the dagger could make contact.

The two formidable warriors wrestled for control, the Zealot put all of its weight and muscle behind its wrist while Entity desperately tried to push it back. But with the combined strength of its weight and muscles, the Zealot was winning.

The dagger inched towards Entity's face and he grunted with the effort of trying to stop it. His muscles were screaming at him to stop and his breath was coming in short gasps, courtesy of the alien squashing his midsection.

Something sped past the injured Zealot, angling towards Entity. His strength finally gave out and the dagger plunged towards Entity's face, the Zealot yelling with triumph.

Poltergeists foot suddenly appeared. It slammed into the side of the celebrating Zealot's head, knocking it and it's dagger side ways. The dagger scraped across Entity's visor, drawing a deep scratch across it surface.

The Zealot's head struck a rock and was sandwiched between the rock face and Poltergeist's boot. There was a sickening _crunch _and the Zealot slid to the ground. Dead.

As soon as Poltergeist's foot touched the ground she spun around, raising her pistol as she turned. She fired it, point blank, into the shoulder of the injured Zealot which had been approaching them with it's retrieved plasma sword.

Poltergeist's last remaining bullet pierced both the flesh and the shield of the Zealots right shoulder. It shattered the ball of bone in the Zealot's shoulder socket and threw the Zealot backwards, rendering its right arm useless.

She turned towards Entity and offered him her hand.

"There you go," she smiled, holstering her pistol "I saved your life in under ten seco-"

The third Zealot came flying out of the maze of rocks. It slammed into Poltergeist and pushed her up against one of the surrounding rocks.

"_Oh no you don't!_" Entity thought, scrambling to his feet.

He charged towards the Zealot as Poltergeist slipped out from under it's grasp. She stepped to the side as Entity slammed his shoulder into the Zealots spine.

_Snap!_

The Zealot went limp as Entity crushed it between himself and the rock.

"There you go," he replied, walking over to the injured Zealot "I saved your life in under five seconds."

"Yeah, yeah," Poltergeist grumbled, walking over to join him "is it alive?"

Entity dropped the Zealot's head, which he had been examining and shook his own one.

"Nope," he said, standing up "he lost way too much blood form that shoulder wound."

"Come on," Poltergeist said "let's go get that artifact."

The two battle damaged MJOLNIR suits jogged to the center of the dig-site, the sage colored one reloading it's pistol as it went.

They reached the center and Poltergeist jumped into the crater. She rummaged around inside it for a moment while Entity kept watch. Entity examined the crater's surroundings and realized something.

"This isn't a dig site." he informed Poltergeist.

What the two Spartan's had mistaken for a hole dug by the covenant was actually the crater left by a Wraith's plasma shell.

"And this isn't Forerunner tech." Poltergeist replied, handing a glowing purple cylinder up to Entity.

"What the hell is that?" Entity asked, turning it over in his hands.

"No idea," said Poltergeist "but it's gotta be pretty damn important if ONI lied to us about it."

"Give me a break," Entity laughed, as they walked back towards their Warthog "ONI would lie to us if it wasn't important."

"Are the troops ready?" Rha asked, double checking his shields.

"Ready and awaiting your orders brother." Voro asked.

"Good," Rha replied "Get the surviving Mgalekgolo to go in first. Have them arranged au by side and order the Kig-Yar squads to form up in lines beside them."

"A shield wall," Voro mused, seeing what his brother had in mind "interesting, I'll tell our Sangheili to lead the surviving Unngoy squads behind it."

"We have two remaining Wraiths correct?" Rha asked, waiting for Voro to confirm it "have them stay out of site of the courtyard and pick out a squad to act as spotters for them. And make sure they don't enter the courtyard!" he added "We don't need another Vhar."

Vhar was the name of the Elite that had driven his Wraith into the courtyard during the first assault.

Bright was feeling down. Not because of the spikes that had pierced her back, but because everyone seemed to have something to do except her. All she could do was stumble around and fall over.

Simon and Spook we're trying to repair the radio after it had broke again and Spirit was busy ordering Greaves and the marines around.

"You okay Bright?" Taylor asked, leaning against the railing next to her.

They were on the platform by the loading doors, looking out onto the courtyard below.

"Yeah," she sighed "just feeling a bit useless, you know."

"Hmm," he replied, staring off into the distance "that might be about to change."

Bright followed his gaze and saw that there was a large wall of flickering light approaching the gate. The gate was wide enough to allow three human tanks to pass through side by side and it would easily allow whatever was approaching them to pass through it with ease.

Bright peered towards the light and let out a small gasp. It was a wall of covenant shields, with two large, dark blue and solid shields in its center.

"Covenant!" shouted Taylor.

He turned to Bright.

"Can you fight?" he asked.

"Yes sir!" Bright replied, straightening up and wincing slightly.

"Then follow me."

Bright followed Taylor, wincing slightly, as he made his way down the left walkway.

"Battle stations!" Spirit yelled out, as the courtyard erupted into a hive of activity.

Bright reached the bottom of the left ramp, struggling not to be swept away by the marines and ran to catch up with Taylor. She saw him taking cover behind a burnt out warthog with the rest of her squad.

"Bright?!" Greaves exclaimed, pulling on his helmet "Are you sure your good to fight?"

"Ready and waiting sir!" Bright replied, eager to be of help.

She pulled on her own helmet as the covenant opened fire. They were still quite far away and their shots were wide and off target.

"Remember what I told you!" Spirit yelled "Only use the dome shield when the Wraith's fire!"

After Specter had spotted the two Wraiths arriving Spirit had ordered the marines to scavenge the covenant corpses for any dome shields. The marines were instructed t turn the shield on when a Wraith fired at them and switch it off, to conserve its power, after the danger had passed.

Bright peeked around the corner of the Warthog and was surprised to see that the wall of shields had advanced almost to the gate.

An Elite near the back of the shield wall yelled and the Covenant opened fire. Hundreds of bolts of plasma flew towards the human forces, fired through the openings between the shields.

The plasma slammed into makeshift barricades, melted metal and felled several marines.

The Marines replied in kind, days of fear, anger and the loss of many friends lending to the ferocity of their assault. Bullets sped towards the shields. Most of the bullets bounced off the shields, ricocheting into the surrounding area, but there were some that made it through the gaps.

Gaps opened up in the shield wall as Jackals had holes torn in them and Bright saw that there were more Covenant warriors behind them.

The wall suddenly split into five parts. Two squads of Jackals on the left, two on the right and the Hunter's in the middle.

The two Jackal squads on the left burst through the gate, closely followed by three Elites and eleven Grunts, and dashed towards a group of debris on the left side of the courtyard, quickly eliminating the five marines that were using it as cover.

The Jackals on the right tried to copy their team mates and were torn apart as Spirit, Spook and some very angry marines assaulted them with rifles, grenades and insults.

The three remaining Jackals beat a hasty retreat, one Elite and five grunts were huddled behind them. They had left over a dozen of their team mates behind.

"Incoming!" Someone shouted.

Bright looked skywards, while her squad mates fired at the Covenant on the left and saw two blue bolts arcing towards the courtyard. She was horrified to see that one of them was heading for her.

She scooped the Dome Shield unit off of the ground and fumbled with its controls. She found the activation symbol and pressed it.

She dropped the unit and took and involuntary step back as the golden shield ballooned out from the unit. It enveloped the squad and their cover completely.

"Fuck!" Simon yelled, ducking down behind the Warthog as his bullets rebounded off of the Dome.

The bullets slammed into the chassis of the Warthog.

"Warn me next ti-" he began.

He was cut off as the Wraith's bullet hit the shield. It shook the ground beneath their feet and rattled their teeth. Bright pressed the activation button on the unit and the shield disappeared.

She looked behind her and saw that the squad of marines had failed to activate their shield in time. All that was left were body parts and smoking concrete.

There were six squads of five marines each spread out through the courtyard plus an extra three squads stationed on the catwalk.

There were now four squads of marines spread throughout the courtyard.

Bright poked her head out from behind her cover and fired her SMG towards two Grunts on the left that had strayed beyond the protection of the Jackals shields.

Her bullets found their mark as three marines were obliterated by the combined might of the Hunters. The two Grunts dropped to the ground and one of their Elite overlords yelled his anger, firing his plasma rifle at Bright.

She ducked behind the Warthog and did some quick calculations.

"_We have thirty-two marines, four ODST's and two Spartans,_" she thought, loading her SMG "_and they have around about thirty-five warriors, plus tanks and back up. We aren't going to last long._"

Spirit sent ten bullets slamming into the unshielded chest of the last surviving Elite on the left and ducked back behind cover. He reloaded his rifle and peeked out from behind his chunk of masonry to see a squad of five Elites and three Jackals sprinting through the gates.

"Dammit!" he yelled "They've got reinforcements."

"I saw," replied Spook "we aren't going to last long with those Wraiths pounding us like that."

As if on cue two more plasma shells rose above the compounds skyline and arced towards a squad of marines by the center of the courtyard. The marines activated their Dome shield. The first shell crashed down around them. The shield held.

The marines deactivated the shield, only to be hit by the second shell. They barely had time to yell before they were blown apart, and burned horrifically, by the roiling ball of blue plasma.

"Dammit!" Spirit yelled "They must have spotters somewhere."

"Even without spotters..." Spook replied, destroying one of the new Elites heads with a well timed shot from her DMR "Even without spotters those Wraiths are gonna pound us."

"Specter, Poltergeist do you copy?" Spirit radioed, Spook had managed to get the long range radio working. Again.

"We hear you loud and clear captain," Poltergeist replied, speaking for the two of them "what do you need?"

"The Covenant Wraiths have us pinned down in the courtyard, we need you to take em out." he replied.

"Can do captain," Poltergeist answered "can you give us coordinates?"

"Spook?" Spirit asked.

Spook activated some complicated functions in her helmet's HUD and it traced the arcs of the last plasma shells, giving her their points of origin.

"Sending them now." she grunted, as a plasma grenade detonated nearby.

"Received," Poltergeist confirmed "moving to engage."

"Roger that Polt," Spirit said, as two marines on the walkway were hit by plasma bolts "happy hunting."

Rha leaned out from behind his Kig-Yar protectors and fired his plasma repeater at two marines that were running across the walkway. His bolts took them in the chest and legs and they fell to the ground, their bodies burned and their hearts stopped.

He ducked back behind the safety of the shields and shook his head. The was no glory in this. No honor in killing desperate, terrified soldiers with superior technology. Those warriors probably had families, friends and-.

Rha banished the dangerous thoughts from his head. Those thoughts led to heresy, and heresy led to death.

He looked to his left, over towards first shield. He had been horrified when the demons had slaughtered over a dozen of his team mates. He was amazed by their ferocity and speed.

"_Thank the Prophets there are only two of them._" he thought.

Specter, his trigger finger ready and willing, stalked through the battle damaged hallways of the ONI base, occasionally stepping over a burnt or bloodied marine. The hallways were eerily quiet and Specter felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he thought about the four Spec Op Elites that could be aiming their guns at him right now.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Phantom trailing after him, his shotgun loaded and ready. They continued through the hallways, their footsteps echoing off of the walls around them.

They located a stairwell and took up to the third floor, the located in Specters helmet began to beep at regular intervals as they neared their quarry.

"You reckon he's still alive?" Phantom asked, speaking to alleviate his own tension.

"How would I know?!" Specter snapped, he was accustomed to sneaking around like this and hated to be distracted during his stealthy activities.

Specter had always been stealthy, he had constantly snuck off from activities or out after curfew during his training on Reach, and he was so accustomed to these kinds of situations that he sometimes forgot how it affected other people.

Being a super soldier was one thing. Trudging through a dark, silent environment and knowing that every moment could be your last was another.

"Sorry," he apologized "I have no idea. Probably not."

Phantom nodded, keeping quiet and following Specter closely. They walked down a corridor and came to a door that was slightly ajar. Their locators were beeping rapidly.

Specter nodded towards Phantom and they burst through the steel door, throwing it back on its hinges. The room was the control center for the whole base, the far wall was covered in windows with a row of computers in front of it. In the center of the room was a dead man in black clothing.

"Check him." Phantom said, turning to cover the door and keeping low in case anyone was looking through the windows.

"Who made you boss?" Specter grumbled as he knelt down beside the corpse, calling up the file ONI had sent them in his HUD.

"Black clothing, so cliche." he continued, rolling the man onto his back and comparing his face with the one in his HUD "yeah it's him."

Phantom glanced over his shoulder, failing to see the transparent blur that passed through the door.

"Search him for any equipment and let's get out of here." he said.

Specter nodded his agreement and turned to observe the body. As he was turning to search the body he caught sight of a small, hand shaped blur moving through the door.

Specter exploded from his crouched position, leaving his DMR on the ground beside the corpse and kicked the door with all his might.

The door slammed closed on the blur with a loud _crunch._ The blur blurred, accompanied by a yell and an alien hand faded into view.

A Spec Ops Elite materialized next to Phantom and lunged towards him. But Phantom was quicker. Phantom jammed the butt of his rifle into the Elites chin, staggering the creature and sending it reeling.

Specter grabbed the hand, feeling the broken bones grind together, opened the door slightly and hauled the Elite through. The Elite stumbled through the opening, with its head low and Specter brought his right knee up into the aliens face.

The Elite tripped over the corpse and ended up sprawled by the base of the computer banks. Specter whirled to face it, slamming the door closed, as Phantom planted a front kick in the center of his assailants chest, slamming it against the wall and destroying its shields.

Phantoms attacker hit the wall and bounced off of it. The Elite stumbled towards Phantom and he fired his primed shotgun into its chest, obliterating it and spraying himself with purple blood.

Specter drew his combat knife as his Elite charged towards him, it's left wrist swinging unnaturally. It swung it's right wrist, which had a plasma dagger leaping from it, towards Specter. Specter stepped to the left, avoiding the dagger and slipped his knife under the Elites arm and into its rib cage. The alien was dead before it hit the floor.

He resheathed his knife and scooped up his DMR.

"What do you think?" he asked Phantom, whom had finished his Elite a few seconds before Specter "The window or the door?"

"Oh definitely window," Phantom replied as Specter smiled with child like delight "doors to risky, they could have booby trapped the corridor."

Specter slammed the butt of his DMR into the reinforced glass three times. The glass cracked, cracked some more and a large section fell towards the ground. He clambered up onto the top of the computer banks and looked back towards Phantom.

"Well no time like the present." he grinned.

He leaped through the opening and plummeted towards the ground.

"Crazy bastard." Phantom laughed.

Of the entire squad, Specter was definitely the most reckless... And crazy. Phantom was probably the most hot headed, spirit was the thinker, poltergeist was caring but in a fierce way, Entity was more loyal then a dog and Spook was the quickest learner and the most insightful of the squad.

But they were all reckless, and a little crazy at times.

Phantom climbed on top of the computer banks and followed Specter through the window.

They jogged out of the compound and climbed the hill back to their Warthog, eager to escape the menacing compound and the jungle with its invisible eyes.

They reached their Warthog without incident and approached it.

_Snap!_

Specter and Phantom whirled around to see the two surviving Spec Ops materialize on the muddy road. The Elites charged them. Specter fired his DMR, catching the Elite on the left three times on the head, damaging it's shield while Phantom destroyed the other Elite's shield with a round from his shotgun.

The Elite on the right reached Specter and stabbed its sword towards him while the second Elite swung its sword in a downward arc towards Phantom's head. Both of the Spartans sidestepped the attacks, the sword meant for Phantom cut into the front of the Warthog while the sword meant for Specter missed him completely.

Phantom cocked his shotgun and fired it into the Elite's, who was struggling to free his sword, back. The Elite crumpled to the ground while it's sword dematerialized. Specter fired off four more shots towards his Elite, which had spun to face him. Specter's last bullet caught the Elite in the neck and it dropped to the forest floor.

"I feel much better now that they're dead." Specter sighed, climbing onto the turret.

"I know what you mean." Phantom replied, pressing the Warthogs ignition.

It was true, now that the Elites had been killed the forest had lost all of its menace. The Spartans no longer felt as though their every move was being watched.

The Warthog rumbled into life and Phantom pressed his foot down on the accelerator. The wheels spun, churning the mud below it. The wheels found purchase and the Warthog lurched forwards.

Phantom turned the Warthog towards Tower Base and sped off down the road.

The Warthog flew out from under the jungles canopy. Phantom steered it down the road. Specter turned his head to the right and activated the zoom function on his HUD. He zoomed in on Warthog in the distance and saw that both of its passengers we're safe.

"Looks like Entity and Polt are okay." Specter said, as they sped towards theorist where the roads joined.

"Shit!" Phantom exclaimed, glancing in his rear view mirror, which was tilted at an odd angle "We got Banshees incoming!"

Specter rotated his turret and spied two purple Banshees bearing down on him. He thumbed the activation buttons on his turret and sent hundreds of bullets towards the airborne objects.

The Banshees parted, flying in separate directions and avoiding the stream of bullets and returned in kind.

"Swerve!" Specter abbreviated.

"On it!" Phantom replied, wrenching the steering wheel to the right, then to the left.

The Warthog swerved down the road, dodging most of the plasma bolts, although a few of them impacted against the chassis and bounced off of the Spartan's shields. The Warthog continued to fishtail down the road while Phantom wrestled with the steering wheel.

The Banshees unleashed another salvo of bolts, most of which missed and Specter returned the favor.

Phantom, having regained control of the Warthog, steered it towards the join in the road. They sped through the join, driving onto the main road and drawing parallel with Poltergeists Warthog.

"Incoming!" Specter yelled.

Phantom glanced in the rear view mirror in time to see one of the Banshees launch a green plasma shell towards him. He wrenched the wheel to the right and the Warthog complied.

The green plasma slammed into the road beside them, showering them with sparks as they slammed into Poltergeists Warthog.

"Hey!" Specter shouted "Watch the paint!"

"I'm a bit busy!" Phantom replied.

The Banshee on the left took a sudden interest in Poltergeist's Warthog. It veered to the left and fired at them. Poltergeist swerved, avoiding the bolts and Entity returned fire with their Warthog, landing several shots on the Banshee's left wing.

The Banshee fired again. It hit the Warthog. Seven blue bolts struck the back of the Warthog. A few of them hit the turret and they burned through its metal covering. Specter sent a few rounds towards the Banshee, regaining it's attention and allowing Entity some time to recover.

"Specter, Poltergeist," came Spirit's voice "do you copy?"

Phantom grunted as he steered the Warthog over a pot hole, the resulting bounce threw off Specter's accuracy.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, pulling the aiming reticule back on target.

"We hear you loud and clear captain!" Poltergeist said, over the radio "What do you need?"

Specter didn't bother listening to the rest of the conversation, Poltergeist would fill him in later. He fired the turret, sending hundreds of bullets streaking towards the Banshees.

Several of the armor piercing rounds struck the right wing of the Banshee on the left. The bullets tore great purple chunks out of the machine and it swerved to the left, crashing into it's partner.

Specter aimed the turret at the first Banshee's cockpit and fired. The bullets tore into the dome like structure, igniting several fires and triggering tiny small explosions. Sparks flew from the Banshee's wounds and it exploded, knocking its partner from the sky.

The two Banshee's fell from the sky, trailing smoke, sparks and purple fire.

"Yeah!" Specter exclaimed, turning to look at Phantom.

"Spec, Phantom look out!" Entity yelled.

Specter turned back around to see the two Banshees spinning along the ground towards them.

"Whoa!" he yelled, thumping the top of the Warthog "Faster faster faster!"

Phantom pinned the acceleration pedal to the ground. The ball of purple machinery was spinning towards them, it bounced and rolled over the ground, tearing deep furrows in the road as it went.

The ball of destroyed vehicles chased them down the road for a few more meters before its momentum finally gave out. It rolled to a stop and slowly fell to pieces.

"Whew," Specter muttered "that was a close one."

"Specter, Phantom," Poltergeist radioed, as Specter and Phantom argued over how 'awesome' the recent event was "we've got a new objective."

"We're all ears." Phantom replied, all arguments forgotten.

"Spirit and Spook are pinned down in the courtyard by two Wraiths," Poltergeist continued, sending the two Spartans coordinates via her helmet's HUD "they need us to eliminate them."

Two markers appeared over Tower Base, which was rapidly growing closer, one was to the left while the other was to the right.

"Roger that Polt," Phantom replied "we'll take the one on the left."

They reached the gates and slowed considerably. They carefully drove their Warthogs through the small opening, the rest of the gate was barred by large purple road blocks and picked up speed again once they were through.

"Let's go hunt some tanks." Specter said.

"Crap!" Spook cursed, as her gun clicked empty.

She let the empty clip slide to the ground and pulled a fresh one from one of the many pouches strapped to her chest. She slammed the clip into the rifle and checked her ammo counters.

"I've only got two clips left!" she yelled at Spirit.

Spirit finished emptying his clip into an Elite Minor and stepped back behind the chunk of concrete they were using for cover. The Elite did not survive.

"I'm on my last one now." he replied, sliding his last clip into the rifle "Let's make them count!"

He nodded at Spook and they stepped out from behind their cover, immediately sighting their individual targets.

Spirit chose a squad of orange Grunts, the sunlight reflected off of their armor and hurt Spirits eyes. He pulled the trigger and panned his muzzle from left to right, peppering the four Grunts with bullets.

They yelled, tried to run and fell to ground as Spirit's bullets blew holes in their exposed backs and chests.

His work done, Spirit retreated behind the rock and leant his back against it. Spook joined him, after eliminating two of three Jackal warriors.

Spirit checked his ammo counter while Spook loaded her last clip into her gun.

"I've got thirteen rounds left." Spirit grunted "After that I'm going to have to get up close and personal."

"Last clip." Spook grunted "And I've still got my pistol left."

Phantom and Specter sped through the deserted and destroyed streets of Tower Base. They passed destroyed buildings, burnt bodies and smoking vehicles.

"We're close." Phantom muttered, coming to a stop in front of a long, dark tunnel.

The marker in his HUD had turned a bright orange and the distance counter beneath it read less then a hundred meters.

"Wraith must be hiding out on the landing pad" Specter said, checking turret to make sure it was working.

"I'm gonna try drifting around to it's back. See if you can hit the reactor there." Phantom relied.

Specter nodded his approval and Phantom accelerated forwards. They drove into the tunnel and Phantom turned on the headlights. The tunnel was deserted.

They sped out of the other end, their visors automatically adjusting to the change in light. There was a T-intersection ahead. The - part of the intersection was a large runway, which was littered with destroyed aircraft, and a few surviving ones, that had never left the ground. At the right end of the runway was a large circular area, a landing pad for Hornets and Falcons.

The landing pad was clear of all UNSC vehicles and in their place sat a large, purple Wraith. The Wraith was facing north-east, the direction of the courtyard and every few seconds it would fire a large blue bolt into the sky. The Wraith was surround by three Elites.

Phantom steered the Warthog towards the Wraith. The Elites heard the roar of the Warthogs engine and turned to face it, yelling a warning to the Wraith. The Elites raised their plasma weapons and opened fire while the Wraith turned to face the Warthog.

The Warthog swerved down the road as Phantom jerked the steering wheel left and right. A torrent of bullets leaped from the barrel of the turret as Specter thumbed the fire buttons.

He had aimed for an Elite in the left side of the landing pad and the alien dived to the left, avoiding death by mere inches. Specter panned the turret over to the right, spraying the whole landing pad with bullets.

The Wraith was unaffected, the rounds bouncing off of its heavily armored front while the two other Elites scrambled for cover. They found none. Specter's bullets tore into the Elite closest to the Wraith, suspending its corpse in midair with their force and spraying the Wraith with the aliens blood.

The other Elite was hit nine times, it's shield gave out and three bullets hit its shoulder and leg, crippling the fearsome warrior.

Phantom reached the landing pad and turned right. He pressed the brakes, pinned the accelerator the the floor and yanked the steering wheel to the left. The Warthog lurched backwards, then sped forwards.

It turned sideways and slid around the outskirts of the landing pad, smoke flying off of its rubber tires. The wounded Elite stumbled to its feet, saw the approaching Warthog and limped to the side with all the speed it could muster. It wasn't enough.

The Warthog slammed into the Elite, which died on impact. The corpse tumbled over the top of the Warthog and onto the road.

The Warthog reached the back of the Wraith and Specter opened fire. The turrets rounds tore through the weak armor at the Wraith's back, tearing it to pieces and exposing the purple reactor beneath.

Phantom slammed on the breaks and the Warthog skidded to a stop, allowing Specter more time to hit the reactor.

"Spec hurry it up!" Phantom yelled.

The maroon colored Elite, the one that had escaped death, was clambering to its feet. And it looked angry.

Voro' Chonchiyo was angry. Very angry. And very surprised as well. The demons had come out of nowhere. They had arrived less then a minute ago and already both Jaja' Mantakrea and Sork' Griotohad fallen to their assault.

Voro's weapon was gone, torn to pieces by the demons deadly bullets. He pushed himself to his feet and drew his plasma sword. He located the human vehicle. It had halted behind the Wraith and was slamming round after round into its exposed reactor.

"_I must save Garrak!_" Voro thought, rushing t save the Wraith's pilot.

He roared at the demons and sprinted towards them, activating his sword as he went. It flared into life, sparks flying from the ground where it touched. One of the demons, the driver, pulled a small weapon from its hip.

Voro was about to begin evasive maneuvers when the first bullet hit him. It slammed into his head with the force of a charging rhinoceros, his shield saving his life and snapped his head backwards.

He darted to the side avoiding another bullet and was just starting forwarded when two more slammed into his chest.

"_Great heavens above this demon is fast!_" Voro thought.

He ducked and weaved, ignoring the aching of his chest and neck. He dodged five more bullets, one of them glancing his chest and heard a small _click._ The demon swore and Voro smiled.

"_Out of ammo._" he thought, as he reached the Warthog "_I will destroy this demon with my bare hands and cry my victory to the gods!_"

He leaped towards the Warthog, his right hand raised and firmly clasping a glowing sword. He whipped his arm downwards, descending towards the driver and landed straight on the demons raised foot.

The demons booted-kick crunched into Voro's chest, knocking the air from his lungs and cracking more then a few ribs. The sword spun from Voro's grasp as his body was jerked to a stop.

The demons kick sent Voro flying backwards, he crashed onto the asphalt and didn't get up. He lay sprawled on the landing pad, trying to figure out what had just happened.

Phantom leaned to his left and kicked his right foot out as hard as he could, his hamstrings flaring with pain at the unnatural position. His kick hit the screaming Elite in the chest, hurling him backwards.

"Aghhh!" Phantom yelled, as his hamstrings were stretched to their limit.

"Whoa! That did it!" Specter yelled, as the reactor exploded "Let's get out of here before that thing goes nuclear!"

Phantom pulled the steering wheel to the left and stomped his foot down on the accelerator. The Warthog jumped forwards as tiny detonations appeared along the Wraith's chassis.

They tore down the runway, Specter radioing Spirit to inform him of their success.

Voro stumbled to his feet, his sword lost and his pride damaged. How could he have allowed them to escape?! He was going to be punished for this for sure.

"_Garrak!_" he thought, suddenly remembering the Wraith's pilot.

He scrambled onto the Wraith's cockpit, avoiding the holes in it's chassis were purple flames leapt through. All around him the chassis was exploding, the detonations were small at first but they were getting larger and larger with each passing second.

He found the hatch, it had been mangled by an earlier explosion and pried it off. Grunting with the effort, he heaved it aside and looked into the small cavity.

Garrak, one of the strike forces higher ranking Sangheili, sat within. The maroon clad warrior was leaking blood from a dozen holes in his back and there was a large metal spike protruding from his left shoulder.

Voro grasped Garrak with both hands and hauled him out of the fiery cockpit. Voro draped Garraks right arm over his shoulders and wrapped his own left arm around Garrak's waist.

He supported the wounded warrior and climbed down from the Wraith, which was about to explode. They hobbled away from the tank as fast as they could. The Wraith exploded, it's shockwave sending the two Sangheili flying.

They crashed to the ground, their ears ringing and tumbled across the asphalt. Voro was on his feet immediately. He rushed over to his prone teammate and rolled him onto his back.

"No!" Garrak whispered, his voice coarse "Kill the demons! There is no honor in helping a warrior to weak to win."

"There is no honor in killing a retreating enemy either!" Voro snapped, annoyed at the warriors disdain for his own life.

He pried the spike from Garrak's shoulder and filled the wound with a canister of bio-gel that he carried. Garrak drifted into unconsciousness.

"Second Wraith come in." Voro grunted, trying to radio the second Wraith and it's guards.

He rolled Garrak onto his front and examined the warriors wounds. Several of the rounds from the human machine had torn through the back of the Wraith and embedded themselves in the Sangheili's back. They wounds themselves weren't a problem, they were shallow and easily fixable, it was the blood leaking out of them that needed attention.

"Second Wraith come in!" he tried again, receiving no reply save for white noise.

"Sons of the Prophets!" he swore, switching his radio to Rha's frequency.

He grasped a small piece of sharp, wreckage from the Wraith and used the pointed end to dig the metal bullets out of Garrak's back. It was gruesome work. He worked with the sound of the crackling flames filling the background.

"Rha come in!" he radioed, digging out a seventh bullet and sealing the hole with bio-gel.

"I read you my brother," Rha replied, his voice talking over the sounds of death and gunfire "what news do you bring?"

"Bad news," Voro said bluntly, filling two more wounds with bio-gel "two demons arrived, they destroyed the Wraith and killed Jaja and Sork. Garrak is injured as well... Badly."

Voro heard Rha swear over the radio. The sound of plasma repeaters being fired filled his headset for a moment before Rha replied.

"What of second Wraith?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"I can't reach them," Voro muttered "if the demons hit first Wraith then they definitely hit second Wraith as well."

"Dammit!" Rha swore "Those Wraiths were our only chance." he took a deep breath and continued "Okay, fall back to second Wraith's position. I'll radio the gates and send the Phantom to pick our forces up from there."

"We will be punished for our failure." Voro said glumly, hoisting Garrak up.

"I would rather be punished then dead any day." Rha replied, terminating the connection.

"Perhaps not brother," Voro said, knowing that his brother could not hear him "there are some punishments worse then death."

"I'm out!" Spirit yelled, ducking back behind the rock in time to avoid a hail of blue plasma bolts as Specter and Poltergeist reported the elimination of their targets.

The bolts hit the corner of the rock, sizzling and blackening the surface.

"Me too!" Spook replied, pulling her pistol from her thigh.

Spirit poked his aqua, HAZOP helmet around the corner of their cover and spied his attackers.

The previously devastated group of aliens had been reinforced by three Jackals and four Grunts. Now there were five Grunts huddling behind four Jackal shields, occasionally venturing out to take pot shots at unsuspecting marines.

"Cover me!" Spirit yelled, placing his empty assault rifle on his back and drawing his battle knife.

He waited until he heard a break in the enemies fire. He didn't have to wait long. Spirit exploded out from behind his cover and sped towards the Covenant warriors.

He veered towards the center of the shield wall and shoulder charged it, destroying their protective wall before they even realized he was there.

A bullet whistled past Spirit's head and slammed into the chest of the Jackal on the far right, which had stumbled. It fell to the ground, purple blood pooling around it as its comrades jumped with shock and fright.

Spirit's momentum had carried him straight through the wall of shields. And he didn't intend to stop there. He took another step forwards and snapped his right leg out, catching a small orange Grunt in the head.

The Grunt's neck snapped and the tiny creature did an involuntary backflip, courtesy of Spirit's immensely strong kick.

Spirit spun around and grabbed one of the still reeling Jackals by the back of its neck. He slammed his knife, which was clasped in his right hand, into the creatures lower back. The Jackal was dead before it hit the ground.

Spirit left his knife embedded in the avian alien and dived to his left, towards an Elite corpse, as the four Grunt's regrouped and opened fire. Several green boots slammed into the area where Spirit had been just a second earlier.

He rolled to break his fall and scooped the unused plasma sword off of the Elites corpse. He activated it and had the breath knocked out of him as something slammed into his back.

He stumbled forwards, fell and rolled. He rolled forwards, twisting his body around as he came up into his feet and faced down the Elite that had shoulder charged him.

Rha gave the order to retreat, yelling it into his radio and broadcasting his orders to the whole strike force. Second Shield was pulling out nicely, the Kig-Yar, there were six of them, had formed a strong shield wall and were deflecting nearly every bullet fired at them as they slowly made their way back towards the gate.

Thirteen Unngoy warrior's were huddling behind the wall along with Rha and three other Sangheili minors.

Rha cast his gaze past the two retreating Mgalekgolo and toward First Shield. They were disorganized, their line was broken and something was in their midst. A Grunt flew out of the melee, spinning through the air and crunching into the earth.

The press of bodies parted for a moment and Rha gasped as he saw a blue demon engaging First Shield in hand to hand combat. He grabbed the shoulder of a nearby Sangheili minor.

"Suyok!" he grunted "With me! We're going to kill a demon."

Suyok nodded his head while Rha told the others to continue falling back. Rha dropped his plasma repeater, it was almost spent anyway, as he couldn't risk firing it without hitting his teammates.

Suyok followed his lead and they both drew their plasma swords. Rha waited until there seemed to be a few less bullets whistling through the air and charged out into the open.

Immediately three marines opened fire at him, but he was already gone, moving with unnatural speed towards the safety of the Mgalekgolo shields. Rha leaped behind the hulking, blue behemoths, Suyok not far behind.

He looked over to First Shield and saw the demon slide it's metal dagger into the back of a Kig-Yar.

"_Our times up._" he thought, as he sprinted towards the demons back, his sword raised above his head.

His feet pounded over the courtyard's scorched and pockmarked surface. He was close to the demon now. He drew back his sword arm and stumbled as three bullets slammed into his right side, knocking the air from his lung and cracking a rib.

His sword arm dropped and he made a desperate lunge forwards, slamming his shoulder into the demons back and sending it flying forwards.

Suyok arrived at Rha's side and pulled him to his feet. The demon was already up and running. Running straight towards them.

Rha and Suyok roared, then charged forwards as one. Suyok stabbed his sword towards the demon while Rha threw his in an overhead cut. The demon spun to the left, quick as a flash and brought his own plasma sword up.

Suyok stumbled forwards as his blade met no resistance and Rha's arm was jarred as his own swing was brought to a sudden halt, blocked by the demon. Rha raised his sword up again and felt and agonizing pain in his left knee as the demon snapped its right leg out in a quick side kick.

The kick buckled Rha's knee and he sunk to the ground as the demon parried several of Suyok's blows, spinning at the end and twirling his blade around him.

Rha growled and leaped forwards, swinging his blade diagonally across his body and activating his left plasma dagger. The demon blocked his attack and was about to launch his own when Rha swung his left wrist towards the demon's chest.

"_I have you now!_" Rha thought.

But the demo had other plans. It leaped backwards, impossibly fast and swung its sword upwards. The white hot plasma cut into Rha's wrist and he yelled with pain. He swung his own sword at the demons head, but the cursed creature ducked under the blow and slipped around to Rha's back.

Rha's life would have ended then and there had it not been for Suyok. The blue Sangheili dashed forwards, his haste alerting the demon to his presence and swung his blade towards the enhanced humans back.

The human dropped to the ground and rolled under the attack. It came out of it's roll only to realize that it had made a fatal mistake. There was now a Sangheili warrior on either side of it.

"You're finished," Rha growled, attempting to demoralize the warrior and make his victory easier "no warrior can fight on two fronts."

"I look forward to proving you wrong!" the demon retorted, as both Suyok and Rha attacked.

Suyok stabbed his sword forwards while Rha attempted another overhead chop. The demon moved with blinding swiftness. It stepped backwards with its left leg, flicking aside Suyok's blade with its own as it went and snapped its right leg out in a viscous back kick.

The kick caught Rha in the chest, winding him and breaking his cracked ribs. Rha doubled over and hobbled backwards. The demon scooped up a dead Kig-Yar's shield and activated it, raising it in time to deflect Suyok's next blow which shattered the shield.

The demon leaped towards the left, placing its own forces at its back. Rha risked a glance over his shoulder. First Shield had reached the gate, their work was done.

"Suyok we can go, First Shield is safe now." he said in the covenant language.

"What's the matter spilt mouth?" the demon teased, noticing the glance Rha had just made "You running scared?"

Suyok roared his rage and charged forwards.

"No Suyok wait!" Rha yelled.

But it was too late. Rha swore and followed his suicidal teammate. Rha swung his sword at the demon from the right while Suyok chopped at it from the left. The demon parried Suyok by bringing his own sword upwards at a horizontal angle and flecked Rha's attack at the same time by simply moving his shield to intercept.

Rha's sword bounced off the shield and it flared a bright red before shattering. Rha staggered backwards and the demon front kicked Suyok with its right foot. The Sangheili warrior stumbled backwards, swinging his sword wildly whil the demon pressed its attack.

The demons shield reappeared and it swung it away from its body, batting aside Suyok's attack and stabbing it's blade into the warriors chest. The shield disappeared again and the demon pulled its sword from the Sangheilies twitching corpse.

"NOOO!" Rha roared, jumping forwards, ignoring the requests from Second and First Shield which refused to retreat any further without him. They stood at the gates, trading gunfire with the humans.

Rha attacked, launching blow after blow towards the demon which weaved, dodged, blocked and parried every single one with lightening quick swiftness and a smug ease that only served to infuriate Rha further.

Rha, angry and humiliated, put all of his strength behind a massive overhead chop. The demon stepped forwards with its right foot and brought its sword upwards to block. But it was not prepared for the sheer strength behind the blow.

The demons knees buckled, it swayed on the spot. But it did not fall. It stepped forwards, with its left foot this time, and threw its left forearm towards Rha's face.

"_Heh, he thinks a simple punch will stop me?!_" Rha thought, chuckling at the very idea.

The shield blossomed into existence on the demons fast approaching forearm and Rha's smile was wiped off his face as the hot, plasma shield slammed into his head and upper chest.

Rha's vision swam as his head was snapped backwards by the force of the blow. He stumbled, turning around in his dazed state, the battle still raging around him and would have died were it not for his teammates in First Shield.

They watched with horror as their leader was bested in combat. They saw the demon preparing to finish Rha with a quick thrust of its plasma sword and decided that they had to intervene.

Their solution was simple now that Rha was no longer in front of the demon. They opened fire. The demon was forced backwards by the onslaught of plasma bolts, forced to cower behind its stolen shield or face the bullets that slammed against it.

"Rha!" yelled one of the surviving Sangheili "Get up here! We're pulling out!"

The voice cut through the haze in Rha's head and he scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his stomach and wrist. He grasped a fallen Kig-Yar's shield and held it, activated, against his side as he went.

He stumbled as several marines fired at him. He ran across the courtyard, towards the gate and finally dived at the wall of shields, landing safely behind them.

Rha assessed his strike forces strength. They had successfully retreated from the courtyard, though the humiliation of his defeat still stung. Their only remaining vehicle was the Phantom and that wouldn't arrive for at least five minutes.

It had been drafted into helping a group of high ranking Sangheili in the north. Rha sighed. They had six Sangheili warriors, two of which were severely injured, left including himself and Voro. They had thirteen surviving Unggoy, the two Mgalekgolo and five Kig-Yar.

They were running low on equipment and supplies. They had left most of it by the south gate, but it was too risky returning there now that there were four demons roaming the compound.

Most of the strike force was sifting through the wreckage of Second Wraith and checking it's bullet ridden guards for equipment.

"_If we can hold out till that Phantom gets here then we might just make it._" he thought.

Poltergeist and Phantom skidded to a halt in front of the cheering marines. They stepped out of their respective Warthogs and observed the relief strewn warriors before them.

"They're happy." Specter laughed, giving Phantom a comradely punch in the shoulder and heading for Spirit.

"Of course they are," Entity said, removing his helmet "they're alive."

The Spartans approached their leader, each one removing their helmet as they went. Specter revealed his short, spiky blonde haired head while Phantom revealed his bald brown head. Entity's extremely short brown hair was coated with sweat and Spirit's black hair wasn't much better.

"So what's the plan?" Spook asked, pulling off her own helmet and revealing her face, which was fiercely beautiful and was the subject of more then a few of the marine's dreams.

"We're getting a signal!" called Poltergeist, from her position over by the radio.

During the covenant's counter attack Spirit had hidden the radio spire in the downwards ramp. Spook had dragged it out again after the covenant had retreated.

"We're about to find out." Spirit said, answering Spook's question.

They walked over to the radio, which was by the rubble in the center of the courtyard. Poltergeist had removed her helmet, revealing a kind face with thin, short black hair that was slicked to her face and neck with sweat.

"It's ONI." she informed them, as they crowded around the small screen attached to the spire.

Spirit reequipped his helmet, pressed a button on below the screen and spoke into his radio, using the spire to boost his signal power.

"This is Ghost Leader, Spartan zero-zero-nine code named Spirit." he said.

"We have you Spirit." said a gravelly voice.

"Ahh shit!" Specter said, glancing away with an expression of disgust on his face, he knew that voice and he was none to find of its master.

"He can hear you!" Spook hissed, punching Specter's shoulder.

"Commander Russel?!" Spirit asked, surprised "I thought you were with the bulk of the UNSC fleet."

"I was," the voice replied, it didn't sound happy "but I've been transferred. And so have you. Prep your squad for evac, a pelican drop ship will be arriving shortly... Assuming you've managed to clear the area captain."

Specter caught Spook's eye and she rolled her eyes while Specter made a rude gesture towards the screen.

"What an asshole!" he mouthed.

She nodded her agreement.

"Pay attention!" Entity hissed, noticing the exchange "And show some respect, he's still a commanding officer!"

The two Spartans obediently shut up.

"That is a negative on the evac sir," Spirit replied, knowing he was in for an argument "not unless you plan on sending more then one pelican."

"And why would I do that?!" came the snarled reply.

"Because there are more then twenty marines stationed here, marines that will die if they stay here." Spirit exclaimed.

"A sad loss." Russel replied "But acceptable. We need Spartans to win this war, not twenty marines!"

"Acceptable?!" cried Specter, Phantom and Spook.

There followed a few short seconds were the three Spartans decided who should speak first.

"How can you say that?!" Phantom asked, horrified at Russel's complete disregard for the marines lives.

"We're not leaving here without these marines!" Specter said.

"That is not an option Spartan!" Russel raged "We don't have the-"

"What about the shipyards?" Spirit asked, intervening and trying to stay neutral.

"What shipyards?!" Russel asked, highly annoyed.

"The Dune Valley shipyards!" Entity realized "There was a ship scheduled to leave for Earth tomorrow."

"That's only a few hours away from Tower Base." Poltergeist said.

"And there were enough vehicles in the motor pool to carry every marine here." Specter said, adding his own information to the, very one sided, argument.

The Spartans had spoken quickly, bombarding Russel with information and not allowing him to speak a single argument.

"We can do it sir." Spirit insisted.

"Fine," Russel growled "we could probably use them were we're going. Our records indicate that that ship is preparing to leave tomorrow. Don't make me regret this!"

"We won't." Spook replied.

"Just out of curiosity," Specter wondered "where are we being sent?"

"Tribute," Russel replied "we've been ordered to assist with the evacuation of civilians."

Russel terminated the link and Spirit gave out several simple orders.

"All right people look sharp!" he shouted "Check your ammo and scavenge what you can. Spook, Phantom I want you to establish a guard roster. Everyone else get some rest!"

Specter sighed gratefully as he lowered himself down against one of the protrusions on the catwalks center platform. Phantom and Spook sat down next to him.

"Rosters done." Phantom grunted, removing his helmet.

"Good." Specter yawned "How's the radio going?"

Phantom and Specter looked at Spook and waited for a reply. They got none.

"Spook you okay?" Phantom asked.

Specter poked her visor.

"She's asleep." he said.

"Good idea." Phantom replied, closing his eyes.

"Yeah." Specter muttered, closing his own eyes as well.

He was asleep before his chin hit his chest.

_*Thanks for reading and any reviews would be much appreciated_


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